The Clouds are Clearing
by adubbs47
Summary: A sudden phone call brings Felicity to the last place she wants to be- Vegas. Now Felicity must rely on the help of her friends to protect her mother.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: So it has been a LONG time since I have written anything worth anyone seeing, and after the finale these ideas kept popping up in my head. I would love to hear your feedback on the story and if it is worth continuing. I'm still looking for a beta, as I have been out of writing for a while. I apologize for any misspellings or grammatical errors that snuck past me. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing and no one written in this story.**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

"So the big guy is ok with us taking a road trip?" Roy asked, skeptically, as he stood in the doorway while she struggled to zip up her overly stuffed overnight bag.

"Yeah" Felicity huffed as she blew a stray piece of blonde hair out of her face, the offending zipper refusing to move. "Hey. Any chance you still got any of that super strength and wanna help a girl out?"

"You know, I think I could use 'actual strength' to close a zipper." He said, his expression not changing from the blank stare he had begun to give her whenever he was sure she was hiding something- whether it be the mint chocolate chip ice cream or lethal new bad guy that Oliver was targeting.

Ever since Thea left town with nothing more than a letter, Roy had been all about the mission-save Starling City and help the Arrow fight crime. Felicity felt for their newest team member, knowing what he must be going through as she herself had been told she was loved by someone but having that person walk away. Not that Oliver meant it when he said he was in love with her-he trusted her, she was his partner- and not that he walked away-they frequented Big Belly Burger once a week for lunch, and then of course still had their…night time activities. But Roy was what she was thinking of.

Roy didn't seem to care much for anything anymore other than wearing his new red mask and red hoodie to help the Arrow take down Starling City's nefarious criminals. At least he was able to take out some of his heartbreak on the recent criminal element without any mirakuru crazy strength. He was also now gainfully employed as her assistant at the mid-sized tech firm that was all too happy to take her after her own recent unemployment. She was now the IT Department Director for Star Labs satellite lab just on the outskirts of Starling City.

As Felicity explained to both Oliver and Diggle when they began to object to her working for Star Labs, she needed to work, and at this point it was either Star Labs or Wayne Enterprises all the way in Gotham City. While she heard rumors of Gotham having its' own vigilante, she preferred to stay closer to home where she could make sure 'her boys' stayed out of trouble.

Which led her to Roy. After getting back to Starling City from Lian Yu the trio found out that Thea hadn't made it out of the city before Slade's army attacked, and had been to see Roy, Roy relayed the message that Thea left, for good. While Oliver seemed to have mixed emotions about Thea leaving, Roy just shouldered on. He got up every day, went to the foundry to help with the cleanup, went out at night with Oliver, stayed late while Felicity collected her computer equipment-the pieces that weren't destroyed, that is- and seemed to just exist in the Team Arrow bubble.

When Felicity was hired at Star Labs she quickly pounced on Roy as her assistant- telling him he needed something other than the foundry and Oliver. The two had been spending an awful lot of time with each other lately were even starting to sound alike. Now he had a purpose outside of saving Starling and Thea Queen, and while administrative assistant wasn't in his career plan long term, Roy did a good job.

It wasn't until a month after Roy started working with Felicity that he started crashing on her couch after late nights at the foundry. At first he used the excuse that with them working so late, Oliver would arrow him if something happened to her and Roy didn't stop it. Then once Oliver found out Roy was sleeping on Felicity's couch regularly- which led to a tense moment where both men seemed to communicate non-verbally while she and Diggle just watched- Roy would say that he needed a ride to work in the morning and the commute would just take too long from his place in the glades.

"Roy, are you seriously going to lie to me again about 'keeping me safe' or 'Oliver's arrows' or that you 'need a ride in the morning'?" Felicity rolled her eyes when he let his overnight bag drop at the foot of the couch one night.

He just looked at her with an 'I'm trying to figure out another not ridiculous, but it really is ridiculous lie' face.

"Seriously, I can hack and task military grade satellites, and you think I can't find out that you moved out of your house, stopped paying rent, and were sleeping at the foundry before you commandeered my couch? Which, by the way, all you had to do was ask."

Roy opened his mouth to respond before he promptly shut it and looked to the paisley carpet underneath the coffee table where the latest issues of Computerworld magazine, and some other IT journal were placed beneath the glass of water he got from the kitchen before Felicity cornered him.

"I'm sorry" he mumbled, glance steady with the floor. "I didn't want to admit…" He trailed off before looking up to her. "Can I stay?"

Felicity stood with her arms wrapped around her waist, appearing to mull over the decision, before giving him a slow, small, smile and nodding her head.

"Oh and by the way roomie, it's your turn to clean the bathroom and buy groceries- but no junk food and no nuts. With the amount of time we spend underground we need to make sure we are getting all those good vitamins, and I'm allergic to nuts." She smiled wider as she ruffled his hair on her way to her bedroom. "Oh, and Roy?" She called out, making him turn his head to meet her gaze. "See? Asking wasn't so hard."

After that night, Roy became like a surrogate brother to her, often choosing her side in disagreements in the lair, frustrating Oliver and Diggle because now they had no tie breaker. He also began making friends- or acquaintances, what could you call relations that he didn't quite trust, mocked at night, but went for the occasional beer with after work? So when she got a very personal phone call at work that morning, she insisted that he drop his recent assignment of filing the new software program licensure paperwork and join her on a very impromptu road trip.

And of course he would want to know if Oliver was ok with the leaving town- while Felicity took him in and gave him a job, Oliver would always be his idol that saved his life and gave him purpose.

And of course she lied when she said 'Yeah.' Oliver and Diggle both had no clue about their little trip, and wouldn't know until they were well outside the Starling City limits. The last thing she wanted was them both asking questions she didn't want to answer, and getting involved in matters they shouldn't be involved in. Roy was different-and if Oliver did find out the nature of her trip at least he couldn't get mad that she didn't take muscle with her.

"And I'm pretty sure if you didn't pack so many different outfits that you wouldn't have this problem with the zipper." Roy huffed as he pulled the zipper closed, only stopping once when it snagged on a bright blue blouse causing Felicity to whimper and Roy to shoot her an 'oh please' look.

"Well I'm not sure what outfits I will need or…" She hesitated as she slid her tablet into her purse and slung the bag over her shoulder. She was going to say 'how long I'll be gone' but thought better of it. No need for Roy to get even more suspicious and alert the rest of the team.

"Or what the weather is going to be like. I mean it could be sunny one minute and raining the next and I don't want to be in a situation where I don't have my umbrella or favorite MIT sweatshirt if it gets cold at night. Being prepared is very important in these types of situations-Not that this is any type of situation that would require planning…I mean it's just two roommates going on a nice little weekend adventure sans danger- I mean arrows. Not that having arrows around are a bad thing I just think-"

"Felicity." Roy interrupted her. "I'm just saying that you packed a lot of stuff."

Felicity took a deep breath- so much for not being suspicious.

The Starling City International Airport had been closed for two months after Slade's men destroyed most of the city, the airport having been an unfortunate victim to the chaos. It was a good thing that this call hadn't come sooner or else she would have been making a one thousand mile trip in her little Mini-Cooper. Now that would have been a fun road trip to make with Roy, who had merely raised an eyebrow when she pulled into the short-term parking garage.

"So are you going to tell me where we are going yet?" Roy asked as they stood in the ticket line waiting their turn.

"Promise you won't call Oliver or Dig as soon as I tell you?" She asked with a sigh. Roy shook his head in response. "This morning I got a call from my…mother."

They stepped forward in the line as the person in front of them was called to the counter. Felicity really wished she had enough time to print out their tickets herself as it would have saved her so much time, although their flight wasn't for another hour and a half, so they had plenty of time to just wait around in the terminal.

"So?" Roy asked confused. "Why would I tell Oliver that?"

Roy could tell that the conversation was making Felicity uncomfortable, but figured it was better to know now instead of later.

"My mother is…my mother," Felicity shook her head and rolled her eyes. "She did the best she could after my father left, but sometimes it wasn't enough. While I was at MIT she lost her job and started drinking more. I tried sending her money for a few months but every time the check was returned." Felicity sighed. "I figured that she was just too stubborn to take the money, and getting her on the phone was a miracle at that point, but after I got the job at Queen Consolidated she stopped returning my calls and then I found out, through an internet search, that she lost the house."

Roy watched as Felicity signaled that they would have to pause so that she could retrieve their tickets. He never would have guessed any of this from what he knew about Felicity. She was too spunky and happy to have come from a struggling family like he did. Then again, Roy knew that Felicity was extremely strong, and stubborn. This new picture of Felicity was beginning to make a lot more sense. Even answering some of his questions as to why she teamed up with Team Arrow in the first place.

"So, she lost the house and went off the grid." Felicity began as they started walking towards the security checkpoint. "When I finally tracked her down she still wouldn't return my calls and kept disappearing. I tried calling family friends back home but no one could tell me much, other than that they had seen her and to just give her time.

"I kept track of her movements and just waited for her to contact me. This morning she did." Roy could tell that Felicity wanted to smile at her mother finally reaching out, but he could also see her hesitating. "Apparently she has run into some financial trouble, bigger than me just sending a check kind of trouble- not that I would just send a check and be done with it, you know? I haven't seen my mother in-"

"I wasn't thinking that." Roy stopped her. "It's good she called."

Roy hadn't seen his mother since before the Glades fell. She took off long before the quake happened and never looked back, not even for her son. Then again, his mother wasn't exactly maternal. Thea had been the closest person he had to call family, then Sin came along and Team Arrow. He had finally had family and people to rely on. Then the mirakuru happened, and he lost Thea, then Sin. All that was left of his constructed family was Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle- and he wasn't even that close to Diggle. Oliver would always be his mentor and the person he wanted to impress, which didn't scream 'support system.'

It was Felicity that took him in, that gave him a job. Felicity found out his favorite ice cream flavor and pizza topping. She knew what his Big Belly Burger order was and what TV shows he watched because he liked, and what TV shows he watched because she made him (everyone deserved to have an education in the sci fi genres, she would tell him). Felicity was like a sister to him.

Roy put his arm around her shoulders as they waited for the security checkpoint to move along. She gave him a smile and reached up to squeeze his hand.

"So why aren't we telling Oliver and Diggle?" He asked.

He watched as Felicity took a deep breath and collected her thoughts. She seemed to do that a lot lately. Ever since she got back from dropping Slade off with Oliver and Diggle she was more reserved with her comments. Granted this was Felicity so she still rambled, went on tangents, and stood up for herself when it came to Team Arrow. It made Roy wonder what had happened to cause this shift.

"If we tell Oliver and Diggle then they are going to want to come with us, and Diggle is busy with Lyla and doesn't need me distracting him with this. Oliver shouldn't be leaving the city with all the new-" she paused to look around, "criminals."

Roy chuckled as they began to move in the line.

"So what you're saying is that you don't want them knowing what's going on because you don't want them to see where you grew up and the state of your life outside of what you do for them?" It was more of a statement than a question. "I get it. You and I are more alike than you think."

Felicity smiled along with him.

"The only difference is that I went to MIT while you became a street thief," she laughed then stopped. "Oh God, I am so sorry I didn't mean that I was better than you for going to college- Of course you would have gone to college if you could have…or not, that would be completely fine too. College isn't for everyone. My roommate freshman year-"

"Next." The security official waving impatiently at Felicity caused her to break off and sigh before walking forwards to begin the checkpoint.

Roy was just taking his cell phone out of his pocket to put in the gray plastic bin when it started to ring and Oliver's face flashed up on the screen. Roy took a glance at Felicity, who was about to go into the metal detector, before looking back at the phone and ignoring the call.

* * *

"Any answer?" Diggle asked without looking up from the monitors in front of him.

He and Oliver had been trying to get into the systems to trace a drug lord that was trafficking into the city by sea, however they couldn't get past the main log in screen. Felicity was the only one with the passwords as she was still not done setting up the new system. It also didn't help their case that the last time she left the passwords for them all to use, Roy had almost crashed the hard drive.

They all understood Felicity's hesitance to then provide them with any more information on the systems unless she was present. In her defense she had her searches and updates set to alert her via her tablet when something big popped up.

However, now that Felicity and Roy worked during the day and were only in the lair at night it often left Oliver with a lot of free time on his hands. This often meant team lunches in the new lair so that they could all be informed of the recent updates, but today Felicity texted both he and Diggle and told them that she and Roy had a "work thing" and couldn't make it. Then she and Roy had dropped off the radar.

Oliver had called Diggle in a semi-panicked haze, worried that somehow the information was leaked that Felicity and Roy were working with him. Diggle tried to calm Oliver's nerve, knowing that since Slade's attack Oliver had been more protective of Felicity than normal. He knew that it was only to be expected now that Oliver was one step closer to admitting the feelings he had, but only spoke as a decoy to be one step ahead of Slade. Diggle sometimes wondered if that's when it hit Oliver that he did in fact love their IT expert.

Knowing that Oliver wouldn't just sit and wait for Felicity to come that night, he offered to leave work early for lunch and run a search on the computers, and even check to make sure their recent target hadn't outed Felicity as their partner. Dig was no Felicity when it came to the computers but he was at least better than Oliver.

After the fall of Queen Consolidated and the news of his and Lyla's new addition to their lives, Diggle knew that he couldn't wait for Oliver to regain control of Queen Consolidated and the fortune that Isabel Rochev took from him. Diggle, like Felicity and Roy, had to get a job.

It was strange at first to be going back into private security, and actually guarding people and things that didn't tuck and roll out of moving cars or put you into headlocks and threaten to shoot you with an arrow if you didn't agree. It was also different to go to work and not be with his team all day. Not knowing if Felicity got into work or if Oliver was planning a mission was very unsettling. When they began planning team lunches he found himself a little more at ease.

Lyla had begun to notice the recent shift in him and on more than one occasion commented on how she hoped Oliver regained control of QC soon or else all three of them would go crazy from separation anxiety.

"It's not like her to not take our calls." Oliver huffed as he paced in front of the monitors Diggle was trying to access. "And it's definitely not like Roy."

"Well maybe they are actually in a meeting and can't answer your calls." Dig rolled his eyes. He too found it suspicious but knew if he let on, then Oliver would be unmanageable.

"When I had meetings Felicity always made sure to have a way to get my messages. Roy's a crappy assistant." Oliver tried.

"Felicity hired him because he needed a job, definitely not because of his filing skills." Diggle laughed.

When Felicity told them that Roy would be working with her from then on, the group didn't know how to react. It was one of those rare nights that they were able to eat outside of the lair, opting for pizza in the city as a group (Laurel included) instead of Chinese on various flat surfaces with weapons and computer set up that needed to be sorted.

They were in the middle of each taking a slice of pizza when Felicity announced that Roy had news, and in Felicity style, blurted out that Roy was going to be her new assistant. At first Diggle chuckled, remembering the conversation Oliver and Felicity had had when Oliver 'promoted' Felicity without her permission, but then clapped the young man on the back. Roy had come a long way since joining the team; from thief to super soldier to picking up the pieces of his life without reverting back to his old ways.

Laurel was equally proud of Roy, even though she was still learning the nature of the group. She didn't join in much with the vigilante activities, having taken over as the DA soon after the Mirakuru crisis was over. It put her too much at odds with her job and the courts. Felicity still insisted that they keep her involved in 'team bonding' activities though.

Oliver just stared at Roy, causing the young man to take a slight gulp, before congratulating him. In time Oliver came to realize that Roy being with Felicity was better than her being alone all day. Dig would never say this out loud, but he knew that Oliver respected Roy-which is why on the rare occasions that they all had a light moment, Oliver took pleasure in teasing him.

"Just give them an hour or so, and I'm sure when they have a free minute they will call." Dig assured him. "Besides, I already asked Lyla to trace their coordinates so we should have that in about five minutes."

Oliver paused mid-step and tipped his head at Diggle in question.

"What?" He remarked. "You think you're the only one who thinks it's suspicious that they both cancel on lunch for a meeting when yesterday they were complaining that today they would have nearly nothing to do at work?"

Oliver was about to open his mouth in response when Diggle's phone began to vibrate on the desk.

"And here we go," he said while bringing the phone to his ear. "Lyla? What did you find?"

Oliver took a step towards the desk while Diggle listened to his ex/wife on the other end of the phone. For months, he and Felicity had been making real strides in their relationship, or what they could have of one. He still knew that being with her would put her at greater risk. Still, he felt whole just being near her, just seeing her smile, or listening to her ramble. When she texted, didn't even call, Oliver knew something was wrong. He knew his girl, and his girl didn't just blow off lunch.

"Ok, thanks. I'll call you if we need anything else…Love you too." Oliver turned to see Diggle staring at the phone in hand.

"So?" Oliver asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Diggle sighed and ran a hand down his face.

"Lyla said that Felicity had an incoming call from a 702 area code around nine this morning-"

"Which is when she texted us." Oliver interrupted.

"Exactly," Diggle nodded along. "She traced the number and it was a dead end, a random phone booth in the North Las Vegas region. After she sent the text messages to us, Lyla has her booking two airline tickets from Starling International to McCarren International, in Vegas. Lyla also has both Roy and Felicity on surveillance as having boarded a plane around eleven am."

Oliver and Diggle both stayed in their spots, not moving, just thinking. Why would both Roy and Felicity leave for Vegas in such a hurry? Shot gun wedding was definitely off the list as both were more like brother and sister than secret lovers.

"Dig." Oliver's face seemed to light up with awareness. "Where is Felicity from?"

Diggle looked at him in confusion before that same thought hit him. "Vegas."

"Vegas." Oliver agreed as both men moved to grab their jackets and begin heading to the airport.

**AN: Constructive feedback is always appreciated. Follow me on tumblr if you like (I'm still new and figuring out what to do, so there's not much to see) at **_adubbs47_


	2. Chapter 2

**AN1: Thank you all so much for your reviews and feedback! I didn't expect such a response and am so appreciative of everyone who took the time to read, review, favorite, and/or follow. I'm a little nervous about this chapter because it introduces Felicity's mother, and her character is still developing in the story. Also, if you haven't noticed the parts of the chapter switch POVs even though they are in the third person- so just keep that in mind. **

**Disclaimer: Again, I own nothing.**

**Chapter 2**

Felicity brought her free hand to her forehead to shade some of the afternoon sun from her eyes. She forgot how warm the desert sun was after spending most of her time in computer labs, office buildings, and beneath night clubs. Since moving to Massachusetts for college she hadn't looked back at the life she left. She had told Oliver that she chose to accept that she could do more and be more than she had been raised to believe. That if she accepted that things couldn't be changed that she would be here, in Las Vegas, probably following in her mother's footsteps.

Her mother always told her she was smart, crazy smart, but she never told Felicity to reach for the stars, or any other motivational platitudes that parents told their children as they tucked them in at night. Felicity tucked herself in.

Vivienne Smoak had a tendency to job hop, not being able to hold down one for too long, but being able to keep a roof over their heads. Felicity didn't live in poverty by any means, some months were just worse than others. Sometimes she would be laid off; sometimes she would just show up back home before the end of her shift and go straight to the shower without saying a word. Felicity didn't know the real reason behind her mother's employment changes, sometimes she could go a whole year with no issues, but other times they were not so lucky.

Her mother was a cocktail waitress on the Las Vegas strip so when she came home she would always come home with a smile and a story for her. The nights that her mother worked late she would hear these stories in the morning while Vivienne made pancakes. When Felicity was a little girl she thought what her mother did was glamorous, but then she went to high school and started working towards college.

The worse things had ever gotten were in the spring of her sophomore year of high school.

Vivienne hadn't been able to find work for two months straight, almost running out of favors from their landlord and being one week shy of hitting the negative on her bank account balance. Felicity remembered her mother coming home late one night, or early the next morning depending on your preference, swaying rhythmically to music that wasn't there and singing a song that was merely for her. Her eyeliner ran low enough to mimic a raccoon, and her lipstick was smeared.

When Felicity asked her mother if she was ok, and where she had been all night, Vivienne had slurred a string of curses, proclaiming that her life wasn't supposed to be like this. Felicity could barely understand what she was saying, but knew that it in some way related back to Felicity's father. When Vivienne was sad she would tell Felicity that her life 'wasn't supposed to be like this.' If her father hadn't left then things would have been better.

Vivienne then proceeded to cry about how he was the love of her life, and he left her. How she didn't understand how he didn't want them anymore, or how low she would have to go to keep her daughter safe. There was even a moment when her mother picked up a sea-green vase, that Vivienne claimed her father got her for their one month wedding anniversary, and threw it against the wall before falling to the floor in heartbreaking sobs.

"Get used to this sight, kid." Her mother cried. "Because in a few years you'll be in this exact spot."

When her mother's sobs became too much for her sixteen year old self to handle, Felicity ushered her to her room, got out Vivienne's favorite set of bright pink pajamas, and tucked her mother into bed. Felicity then went to the living room to clean up the broken glass, holding back tears of her own.

The next morning the rent was paid, there was food in the fridge, and her mother had three job interviews lined up for that afternoon. They never spoke about what happened the night before, or how her mother suddenly had enough money to get them out of months' worth of debt. After that, things were never as bad. The rent was always paid, and while they didn't eat like queens, they didn't go hungry.

It was that night that gave her the final push to go to MIT, to be better, to do more with her life. So when a sweaty, injured vigilante curled up in the back seat of her car, she knew she could handle anything. Or at least hoped she could.

"Nice," Roy stepped up next to her with both her overnight bag and his back pack slung over his shoulder.

Felicity once again looked at the house her mother told her to meet her at. It looked a little nicer than the house she grew up in, but this was only the exterior. The brown stucco house in front of her blended in nicely with the almost dead tree in the front yard, which was a mixture of desert sand, gravel, and dirt. The front porch was merely a concrete slab with wooden two by fours holding up an errant rain gutter.

Roy nudged her shoulder and smiled at her.

"My house used to have bars on the window too." He winked.

Felicity knew that she should feel happy; she was going to see her mother for the first time in years. Roy never even talked about his mother. Oliver's mother was taken from him in revenge. Felicity should be thankful that her mother was still there, she waited until Felicity was on her own two feet before she disappeared, sort of.

"This isn't actually the house I grew up-" Felicity caught Roy's glance. "Come on." Felicity sighed as she led the way to the front door.

There was no doorbell, or at least it looked like there hadn't been a doorbell in quite some time. Felicity noticed that as they got closer to the house she could see where the stucco was crumbling off the siding and the pail just outside the front door with old cigarette butts.

As Felicity raised her hand to knock, she couldn't help but feel a pull backwards- back to Starling City, masked men, and vigilantes. Back to Oliver. He and John were the only ones who had any idea of her backstory. She should have waited for them. Her boys-not that Roy wasn't one of her boys- not that they were boys…They made her brave.

There was a reason that she and her mother stopped talking, a very vivid one. The day Felicity moved into MIT her mother didn't come with her. Because of the length of the trip, she had opted to buy her supplies when she got to the campus, which meant that she only had a few suitcases full of clothes and linens. It was going to be a lengthy journey as her mother had never left Nevada, and she knew that she would be anxious enough without renting a uhaul or large rental SUV to pack all of her things in.

But the morning of her departure came and she told Felicity to just go ahead without her, she would see her for Thanksgiving. She knew her mother was scared of flying, but this was her only daughter going away to college- the first in the family.

"So you're not going to get on a plane because…why?" Felicity asked, anger and hurt fueling her as she dropped her suitcase to the ground with a loud plunk. Felicity couldn't even remember why she had gone from happy and excited in the two seconds it took for her to process her mother's words.

She remembered wishing she could go back and handle the situation differently. Felicity was still upset, and rightly so, but she wished she had talked to her mother. There were quite a few long nights that Felicity spent awake staring at her ceiling thinking of how that was the last time she saw her mother. Of course they spoke over the phone, but they were very short, one-sided conversations.

"It's been a long week." Her mother said simply, pouring herself a glass of water from the 'not- really- a- water- bottle,bottle.'

"A long week?" Felicity asked in indignation. "You skipped work three out of the five days you were supposed to go in, and you sat here drinking the entire time. Must have been a hell of a week."

The glass in her mother's hand was suddenly in pieces on the ground. The remnants of the vodka Vivienne had previously been drinking lay in sporadic puddles on the tiling.

"You think you know what it's like to work the hours I do?" Her mother pointed a finger at her and took a step in her direction, although she was devoid of anger. "You think you know what I do for this family? What I have had to do to keep you safe?"

Felicity gulped as her mother stood directly in front of her, calm as she had ever seen her. Keep her safe? Felicity didn't understand and wanted to ask what she was talking about but Vivienne kept going.

"You have no idea, little girl. And now you get to be all high and mighty and go off to some fancy school, thousands of miles away? And what? You want me to watch?" Her mother laughed. "I have better things to do than to follow you across the country and then give you the sentimental mom hug before you turn around with all your new fancy friends and forget where you came from. But guess what, darling, you will never forget where you came from."

As her mother turned and walked to the closet with the cleaning supplies she heard her give one more, empty chuckle.

"You know what's funny?" She asked without looking for a response. "He did the same thing."

After a moment of silence, her mother sweeping up the broken glass into a folded up newspaper, Felicity turned and picked up her bag. In that moment, being eighteen years old and finally able to leave the life she knew would never be enough for her, Felicity just felt tired. She felt tired of all the constant fighting, the short moments where her mother was _her mother_ and not the woman who came home at two in the morning reeking of five dollar cologne and various kinds of alcohol. Felicity wanted to be a kid who was going off to college, and whose mother was sad to see her go, but happy for her too.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled before making her way to the front door, holding a beat for her mother to follow after her with her own apologies.

But she never came.

It seemed she still wasn't coming. Felicity had knocked on the door three times without a response. Thinking back to her last face to face interaction with her mother made her more hesitant the longer she stood there.

"Relax. Your shaking is making me nervous." Roy whispered as he put a hand on Felicity's shoulder. "Didn't you just face down a mirakuru enraged Slade Wilson with only a syringe and your intelligence? How can your mother scare you after that?"

Felicity let out a mirthless laugh.

"Compared to my mother…" But Felicity never finished her sentence as the door swung open to reveal none other than Vivienne Smoak, and Felicity let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

Her long brown hair was cut in an uneven shoulder length bob while her always manicured nails were short, uneven, and looked to be stained. Her mother had always had the same build as Felicity, but now it seemed that she had lost all of her shape, while her skin pulled and sagged in all the wrong places. Her mother looked sick, and the weight of that knowledge nearly bowled Felicity over.

When Roy noticed Felicity make no move to greet her mother he stepped forward, slipping his arm from around Felicity's shoulder in the process.

"It's so nice to meet you Mrs. Smoak." Roy extended his hand politely.

"I'm not married." Felicity rolled her eyes, for as long as she could remember her mother hated being called 'missus.' "Who are you?"

"Mom," Felicity spoke up from her spot next to Roy. Up until this moment her mother hadn't looked her way, instead going to the tall man in a gray t-shirt and jeans.

"Felicity?" Her mother's eyes began to clear as she caught sight of her only daughter. "Oh baby, it's you."

Then for the first time in years, long since Felicity graduated high school, her mother pulled her into her arms and began to cry. The hug was stiff at first, Felicity not sure how to react, before she brought her arms up to circle them around her too thin mother. Once her arms connected with her mother she finally began to feel what she had been missing for so long.

"Mommy," Felicity sighed as a tear fell down her face and onto her mother's shoulder. "I missed you."

* * *

Roy sat stiffly on a brown sofa, which he could tell had seen better days. He noted after entering the small house that Vivienne Smoak had a thing for the color brown- which was odd considering the rainbow that was Felicity's wardrobe, nail polish, furniture, and office supplies.

"You have a very lovely home." Roy felt very awkward with Felicity's mother. Sure Felicity sort of took him in, and he loved Felicity for that, but he had no connection to this woman at all.

Felicity was always warm and full of light, even when she was angry or sad. It was easy for people to fall in love with her and her energy. She had the entire IT department wrapped around her little finger- well except Chris, but Chris was an asshole.

Felicity was the heart of Team Arrow and made them all heroes, not just Oliver. Roy always just assumed that it was a family trait, even after Felicity told him that little bit about her past while they waited for their plane. It made more sense to him, actually, to come from a family of optimists and have a shitty life and remain optimistic- but what did he know? He also thought the rich had it easy and look what happened to the Queens.

This woman in front of him was nothing like Felicity. She seemed cold and detached from her own daughter. Even though she initiated the hug on the front porch, Roy could tell from the way her eye lids squeezed together, almost as if they were in pain, and the way her entire muscle structure tensed up. Roy was no expert, and this was just his gut impression of Vivienne, but he did not think she was even happy to see Felicity.

Roy didn't know what their relationship was, or why Felicity had gone for years without seeing her mother. He wasn't even sure if Oliver and Diggle did. As he watched Felicity come back into the living room with three glasses of water he couldn't help but wonder the real reason why Felicity hadn't asked them to come, or at least Oliver. Maybe she was ashamed of her mother's situation, but Felicity certainly didn't act like it when she returned her mother's hug earlier.

"Thank you," Vivienne responded to Roy's remark with a smile, but he sensed a bit of ice tacked on. "Thank you, baby." Vivienne smiled up at Felicity when she handed her the glass of water.

"So, how long have you two been dating?" Vivienne asked Felicity and Roy, as Felicity took her seat next to Roy on the couch. "And when did you dye your hair that color?"

Roy nearly spit the water he just drank out of his mouth and began to choke. Him? Date Felicity? Not that she wasn't attractive, but come on. There were better ways to ask for an arrow in the back from Oliver than to date Felicity.

Felicity just chuckled and lightly tapped him on the back as he tried to regain control over his faculties.

"No, mom, Roy and I are just friends." She smiled as if the question was more humorous than life threatening. "And I started doing it in college. Remember I sent you the picture?"

"But you two seem so close." Vivienne remarked again as she took a sip of her water, ignoring her other comment. "And she brought you here. Felicity has never brought home a boy before."

"Seriously, mom, just a friend." Felicity tried again. "Roy works with me at S.T.A.R. Labs, and he's also my roommate." She admitted, and he could detect a bit of pride.

"You live together?" Vivienne asked in shock. "And you're sure you two aren't-" Vivienne gestured between the two of them . "What's wrong with you? I mean he's good looking." Vivienne gestured to Roy. "Is he gay?" Her mother asked in a faux whisper.

Roy snorted in response. While Felicity let her hand run over her face and then back through her hair, which was still tied tightly in its regular ponytail style.

"I have a girlfriend, and she has a…" Roy made non-sensible gestures in Felicity's direction. "A thing."

"A thing?" Vivienne asked, leaning forward in her seat.

"Enough with my love life, mom." Felicity huffed. "Which there is none of." She directed at Roy. "We are here because you called me here."

Vivienne rolled her eyes and sat back in her seat, running her fingers up and down the slowly forming condensation on the glass. Roy watched as she shifted in her seat, causing Felicity to lean forward on the couch, and look out the barred front window.

Roy was feeling the frustration roll off of Felicity as she worked to keep her breathing even. Roy had only ever seen Felicity like this a handful of times, one of which was when he nearly crashed the hard drive in the lair after she worked all Sunday afternoon on getting it set up. She just glared up at him when she realized that her monitors were only showing a black screen after she turned them on.

Oliver and she had been volunteered by Diggle to run out and pick up their lunch order while he "sparred with the kid." Roy saw through Diggle as soon as Oliver shrugged and Felicity grabbed her purse to go. He noted that over the past three months Diggle would watch Oliver and Felicity more closely than before, even trying to give them opportunities to be alone together. Usually he and Diggle would go out and retrieve their order, however that particular day Felicity was itching to stretch her legs.

It didn't take long after Oliver and Felicity left the lair for Diggle to make his way to a more secluded area to call Lyla. That left Roy with nothing to do other than work out on the practice dummy. So after hitting the dummy twice in a good faith effort, he turned around and worked his way over to Felicity's new set up. She had threatened them all with untold horrors if they laid a finger on her computers before she had the chance to give them a thorough work up, but honestly, what could she do?

Besides, she had been teaching him minor tricks and tips when working with the tech in the lair. He was also absorbing a lot of techno-babble at work, so this should be no problem.

It only took Roy four minutes and twenty nine seconds of trying to conduct a trace on Thea's phone number that the system began blinking frantically and then just went blank. Roy tried hitting it on the side a couple times- that seemed to work for Felicity's toaster in the apartment- but nothing worked. Doing his best to look innocent, Roy snuck back over to the training mats and resumed hitting the dummy before Diggle re-emerged from his hiding spot and began to spar with Roy.

When Felicity returned and discovered what Roy had done, he couldn't tell who she was more mad at; him for messing with the systems without knowing how to operate them because all he had to do was ask, or Diggle because he left Roy unsupervised with the brand new technology. Then she proceeded to tell him that if he had asked she would have told him that she was already trying to trace Thea's location. Oliver and her had been working on it ever since they found out she left.

It wasn't until a week later that Felicity got her revenge on Roy. She had somehow rigged all of his ballpoint pens in the office to explode. She even made sure that the important documents that the pens might have exploded on were not being worked on when the incidents occurred. She even told him that using tech to get back at him would have been too predictable. Roy never did find out what she did to Diggle.

"Mom, are you going to tell us why we are here?" Felicity asked again. "If not, then just tell me how much money you owe and we will get out of your hair."

Vivienne seemed to crack a little around the edges as Roy noticed her put her glass down on the side table, next to her chair.

"I borrowed some money from an old friend of mine." She started. "It was only a little at first but then I couldn't pay him back."

"Mom, how much?" Felicity sighed again.

"Fifty thousand dollars." Felicity seemed to simultaneously tense and relax. "But he offered me a way to pay him back by working for him a couple days every couple months."

Now it was Roy's turn to tense up. Nothing good came from working only a couple days every couple of months. He learned that from his father.

"What did you do?" Roy asked.

"Every couple of months I would go to Mexico and pick up a package for him. It was easy for me to get back across the border, a few times."

"Mom" Felicity gasped next to him.

"It was easy money and I paid him off real quick. But then things started getting too big, too intense, and I wanted out."

Vivienne paused and looked down at her shoes while he saw Felicity begin to fidget next to him. He could tell that she wanted to ask questions but was too afraid to break her mother out of the zone she was in.

"I saw a lot of stuff and they said that my debt wasn't repaid. They said I owed them more and would have to work it off." Vivienne finally looked up at Felicity. "I figured that you could help."

Roy looked over at Felicity who had stopped fidgeting and was now stock still.

"How can I help, mom? I run an IT department, but it's a smaller branch and I don't make that kind of money."

"You were always really smart and could always take care of yourself. Hell, you didn't need me half the time." Roy noted that Vivienne had the decency to look mildly ashamed at that. "I depended on you a lot when you were a kid, and I hate asking you for this now…but can you help me?"

**AN2: Ok so a couple notes about the story: I do have a general outline for this story but as I write, it may change which means I can't always promise to update weekly. This story is set about three months post-finale but before anything on the next season would have started. This is mainly about Felicity and her back story, and I'm trying to take my time writing-so you may have questions or I may leave something intentionally vague that will be brought up in a future chapter. Still ask the question if you have it. Also, one last thing, I'm not as knowledgeable about DC canon as some, so if I make an error please let me know so I can go back and fix it. I am still looking for a beta- so any takers? Thank you all again for your support!**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Thank you all for leaving your reviews on the last chapter! I love reading them and knowing how the story is being received. So I'm not entirely thrilled with this part and a little worried about it, but I wanted to show what was going on with Oliver and Diggle while things were moving forward in Vegas. So this part is happening at the same time that most of Chapter 2 is happening. Thank you all for leaving your reviews on the last chapter. After this part things begin to pick up in pace and we will get some more action. **

**Chapter 3**

The trip to the airport was a slow one. Traffic had begun for the afternoon rush by the time Diggle and Oliver had left the new lair and had become a steady stream of slow. Oliver was anxious to get to Felicity, unsure why he was so nerve riddled. It was like Felicity was going to Lian Yu to visit Slade or on an undercover mission with only Roy as her back up instead of home to see her family. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, and he needed to get there.

Diggle was more calm than Oliver; sitting patiently in traffic, waiting for the cars to slowly move forward. Oliver was grateful for that. If both of them were as anxious as Oliver, with no way to really know if something was amiss, then the whole trip would be that much longer.

Oliver glanced down at his phone one more time, hoping that Felicity or Roy had called him and he missed it. He just wanted to know that everything was ok. Ever since Oliver did the "unthinkable" and offered Felicity up to Slade all those months ago, he felt as if they had breached a whole new level to their relationship. They were getting closer- and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

Felicity's safety depended on being kept at a distance. The only reason Slade hadn't gone after her sooner than he did was because he was able to hide his feelings for her. Now that they were out there, the words he couldn't hold back when he was leaving her virtually defenseless in the Queen manor hung over their heads. Felicity did a good job of avoiding any and all topic of them, and so did Oliver. She brushed it off as a decoy technique, while he had to watch her every night in the lair unaware of what he really meant when he said those words.

Things had shifted between them, though. There were more casual touches on the shoulder, more hugs when he was losing faith. There was one night when she fell asleep at her computers and he found her hunched over the desk after he returned from a patrol. She looked so tired, even in sleep, and he wondered just how much she was really getting each night. Without being able to stop himself he reached forward and brushed a strand of blonde hair out of her face and leaned forward to lightly press his lips to her forehead.

Felicity merely grumbled in sleep at the touch, but did not wake.

"Checking your phone every five minutes won't make her call you any quicker." Diggle voiced, not taking his eyes off the traffic. "Besides, you know as well as I do that Felicity would call if she were in serious trouble."

Oliver nodded but looked down at his phone one more time.

"It's just not like her…to go off and not tell us."

He could see Diggle nod out of the corner of his eye, but neither man dared to look at each other.

"She had a life before us." Diggle spoke softly. "One that we didn't know much about, so you can't blame her for keeping this to herself, too."

Oliver sighed and shifted in his seat. While he didn't agree with Diggle, he understood where he was coming from. Sure he and Felicity had been getting closer and learning more of each other's interests. He knew that she set her DVR to record all her favorite tv shows and marathon-ed them every Sunday afternoon. He knew that her best friend from college lived in New York City and always invited Felicity to weekends in the Hamptons, to which she always politely refused. He knew that the Wizard of Oz made her tear up, and that she didn't sleep when he, Roy, and John were out patrolling.

He knew that what Diggle was saying was true. These facts were more things he was learning about who she was now. He didn't know who her mother was, or if she had a happy childhood. He didn't know what she was like in high school or as a child. He didn't really know who she used to be before she became his partner and his friend.

All he could think about was that he wanted her to call him and let him be her friend- her partner. He was jealous that she took Roy and not him. He hated that she lied about having to work through lunch instead of telling him the truth. But most of all he was angry at himself for making her feel like she couldn't tell him the truth.

They had grown closer over the past three months ever since they left Lian Yu. Felicity had helped Oliver construct the new lair (the 'Fortress of Manpain' is what Roy liked to call it), and then a week later move the lair to a new location after Felicity deemed it unfit for her computers and processing systems. She had used the excuse that it was damp and all the moisture would eventually cause the computers to begin to malfunction and crash in the middle of an important mission. The lighting was also very poor and it would take too long to rewire the entire structure.

She used a lot of technical terms that he half believed she used just to confuse him, but he followed her enough to know that this was not the spot for Team Arrow to stay- even though they didn't call themselves that.

Felicity, Diggle, and he staked out a few places that could have worked, but finally settled on another old abandoned warehouse in the Glades. This one was not owned by the Queen family, but had been a part of the steel workers union before they too were run out of the Glades. As soon as they walked into the building, side stepping the 'No Trespassing' sign, Felicity deemed it perfect for their needs.

In between her new day job, his meetings with dozens of lawyers and legal strategists, and Diggle's new life changes they were able to set up the new lair even better than before. Felicity even managed to 'obtain' all the correct paperwork that documented the building as a hidden Queen asset, one that was tied to Oliver alone and not the Queen family fortune.

They played with the idea of reestablishing Verdant in the new warehouse, but decided to hold off on making any decisions on what would take place above them. They knew that they couldn't wait for long as Starling City was still in the rebuilding phase and looters were still making rounds of abandoned buildings. All the more reason for Arrow to have a more permanent home base to help clean up the city.

Felicity admitted, late one Friday night, after all the equipment was set up, the computers were running, and Oliver had just finished warming up on the training dummy that the 'Fortress of Manpain' wasn't as bad as she originally told him. She at least had the decency to look slightly embarrassed as she looked towards the salmon ladder.

Diggle, who had been working on the med bay with new supplies from their new favorite doctor, started to laugh.

"You're kidding," Oliver grinned and shook his head, looking over to the salmon ladder.

"What?" Felicity huffed, embarrassment gone. "It's an integral part of your workout- all of your workouts- I mean the teams workout routine. The ceilings were too low, and I knew you wouldn't move just because of that. And this place is so much nicer and roomier. In the Fortress of Manpain-"

"Can we please stop calling it that?" Oliver rolled his eyes.

"In the Fortress of Manpain, we were all cramped and crowded. I swear Roy was this close to knocking my equipment off the desk one time. I mean that place gave new meaning to team bonding, that's for sure."

Diggle continued to laugh as he went back to putting the gauze pads in their rightful place. Oliver smiled a little wider at Felicity as he rounded her table. She sat back in her chair when he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"All you had to do was say so." He murmured before giving her one more smile and moving towards Diggle.

After he touched her shoulder and spoke softly to her, he walked away feeling how right it had been in the moment. How when she rambled her way off track it had become his way of bringing her back- just a simple touch.

It was only in the month that followed Slade's attack that he had begun to really see what that touch meant to him. It was a moment, an intimate moment, that showed just how well he knew her. It was his way of comforting her. The small smiles, the head tilts, the shoulder touches were all his way of being close to her without putting her in harm's way.

But now those words were out there, and he couldn't stop himself from analyzing what those moments meant in the grand scheme of things. What those moments could mean to another Slade. He needed to keep her safe, just like he promised when she found him bleeding in the backseat of her tiny Mini-Cooper.

Which was why she needed to call him back.

* * *

"What did Lyla say?" Oliver asked as Dig rounded the corner to the seating area at their assigned gate.

They had gotten their tickets, which to their dismay were not for a direct flight, and had made it through security. Now they just needed for their plane to arrive, board, land, and find Felicity and Roy. Lyla tracked Felicity's credit card transactions to a rental car company at the Vegas airport only forty five minutes or so ago but wasn't having much luck locating her further. She was supposed to be at work and not performing unsanctioned tracking on her ex-husband's partner's other partner's.

Diggle completely understand, but now he had to explain that to Oliver. He really wished Felicity would call him back, or he'd even take Roy at this point. Just something to make Oliver relax. Looking at Oliver, from an outsider's perspective, he would say that he did look calm. The man sat stock still, occasionally watching the airport travelers that wandered past, flitting to and from their departing and arriving gates. Oliver Queen was the picture of ease.

But John Diggle knew him better than that. He saw the way Oliver rubbed his fingers together while his hand rested on his thigh, which was a coping mechanism he had noticed over the course of their time together. Oliver was also sitting too still. It was as though he was waiting for something- like a pre-loaded spring just waiting to be released. He would also take one single deep breath and release it slowly ever three or four minutes. All of these things Diggle knew about his friend.

"Lyla said she had to get back to work and she promises to call if there are any more transactions on any of Felicity's credit cards." Diggle assured him as he took a seat, two chairs over, from Oliver. "You do realize that when we get there, Felicity is going to be pretty upset at this gross invasion of privacy?"

Oliver sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Well then she shouldn't have lied and she should have returned our calls." The tone was Oliver Queen the spoiled heir to the Queen family fortune, but the words and the meaning behind it was frustration and worry at not being able to get in touch with his partner.

Diggle shook his head. Sometimes he forgot how different Oliver's life had been from his own. Even going through what he went through for five years, and then two more as the Arrow, there were still some parts of the old Ollie that came through. Sometimes Oliver would act impatient or want something done just his way. Quite a few of their beginning arguments had been because of Oliver's resistance to try something different. It wasn't until their fiery blonde IT girl ran into their lair that Oliver faced a challenge. She changed him, even if only a little bit.

"You know she's not going to see it that way." Diggle affirmed. "She's going to see you and me showing up in a part of her life she didn't want us to be in. There must have been a reason for that."

Oliver turned to look at Diggle, taking his gaze off of the tarmac outside of the window.

"She'll get over it." He said simply before looking down at the floor. "There's something not right about this. Felicity doesn't just lie to us, or ignore our calls. I'm telling you that something is wrong."

Diggle sighed and looked away from Oliver to the passing travelers. Another plane must have landed.

Sure, he knew that something was wrong. He knew that Felicity didn't lie to the guys, except for the time she started meeting Laurel for Saturday brunches, and that wasn't really a lie, more like girl time that didn't involve the team.

Felicity was well aware how worried they all were over her. After the incident with Count Vertigo, Diggle insisted she update her security system in her apartment and always have some form of weapon of self-defense on her. Sure she already had a state of the art system, but she let Diggle reach out to an old buddy in home security who completely redesigned her system. She also now carried a keychain sized pepper-spray, and had a Taser in her glove box.

Felicity wasn't like them. She was innocent in all of this; she wasn't burdened the way that Oliver or he were, or even Roy. Felicity entered into this world by way of poorly crafted cover stories and an injured Oliver. She was supposed to leave it once they found Walter, not play bait for several different serial killers.

She wasn't supposed to face danger the way she had. She wasn't supposed to be involved in a van accident with super soldiers. She wasn't supposed to lay unconscious, on top of Dig, as he felt for a pulse- all the while praying that it was there. Felicity wasn't supposed to bleed and hurt the way that she had.

But Felicity did it anyway. She took her lumps when they came and followed the guys lead. Sure she wanted to pull her weight on the team which caused them untold grief when she got hurt. She was part of the team, and the team worked together and supported each other. She knew this, she honored this.

Diggle knew that Oliver was right, that something more was wrong.

Lyla had told him over the phone that the background information A.R.G.U.S. had on Felicity was limited before she went to MIT (apparently A.R.G.U.S. was very thorough with everyone that worked with the Arrow). Diggle knew that Felicity had a mother and he knew that Felicity didn't like to talk about her much at all. When Diggle asked what Lyla could tell him about Felicity's background and what they could potentially be walking into, she couldn't give him a definitive answer. Apparently, the file was sealed, "Confidential." None of this gave him hope that this would be a simple trip for their girl.

Diggle noticed Oliver shift again in his seat, and he felt for the man next to him. When Lyla had gone missing in Russia he knew that he would have done anything to get her back. While all they knew now was that Felicity was, possibly, visiting her mother it still couldn't have been easy for Oliver to know that Felicity could be in danger and they were so far away and unable to help her.

"She has Roy." Diggle chanced. "And you have trained that kid relentlessly. He loves Felicity and he wouldn't let anything happen to her."

Oliver sighed but made no other acknowledgment to Diggle's comments.

"She and I…" Oliver trailed off. "Even if nothing is wrong and she is just taking a trip to see her mother, I want to be there for her…Like she has been there for me-us."

Diggle nodded in understanding.

"You will…we will." Diggle encouraged him. "Just remember that jumping to the wrong conclusions will drive you insane. We need to trust Felicity to make her own decisions and if she needs us, she will let us know. Besides, we are already on our way."

"You're right." Oliver exhaled before giving Diggle a half smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "How is Lyla?"

Diggle laughed at Oliver's choice of subject change. Ever since Diggle told the team about his and Lyla's big news they had been nothing but supportive and excited for him. While he and Lyla had a lot to work out- their lifestyles weren't exactly conducive to raising a child in- they were happy. When they returned from Lian Yu, Lyla had assigned herself to desk work, but that was only until after the baby was born. They had so much to discuss that it was almost terrifying- Breast feeding versus formula, which car seat was the safest, did they want to know the sex of the baby or let it be a surprise, who would watch the baby while they were at work? All of this and more weighed heavily on his mind, not to mention the A.R.G.U.S./Arrow of it all.

Diggle looked over at Oliver's expectant face, nearly forgetting that he had asked a question.

"She's good." Diggle said in short. "We have a doctor's appointment next week."

"That's great, Dig." Oliver smiled; this one better than the last smile he gave. "I'm really happy for you."

As Diggle was about to respond the gate attendant came over the loud speaker in the gate waiting area, informing them that their plane was about to board. _Finally_, Oliver thought to himself. Diggle gave the younger man a reassuring nod before standing up to grab his carry-on bag. While Diggle was switching his cell phone to airplane mode, something that Oliver didn't really want to have to do for the duration of the flight, his phone began to vibrate in his hand.

"Is that Felicity?" Diggle asked, cursing himself for the edge he could hear in his own voice. He had been doing a good job of not feeding into Oliver's panic- one of them had to stay calm.

Oliver shook his head before bringing the phone up to his ear.

"Roy?" Oliver asked, a slight tremor in his voice, as he stepped to the side of other passengers waiting to board.

"_Thank God_," Oliver heard Roy breathe a sigh of relief over the other end, although it sounded like he was whispering. "_I must have walked into an episode of the Twilight Zone or something where I'm the one least likely to commit a federal offense. This trip has just become seriously messed up._"

Oliver rolled his eyes at the younger man's phrasing, but was confused as to what 'committing a federal offense' had to do with the situation. What was happening there? And why wasn't Felicity calling him?

"Roy, what's going on, and why are you whispering?"

"_Oh, right sorry, I'm in the bathroom._" Roy paused. "_I snuck away when Felicity and her mom started another round of 'let's shock everyone into silence.'_"

Oliver looked to Diggle, brows furrowed. Roy wasn't making much sense, or if he was Oliver needed more context. This conversation was not helping his concern that there was more to Felicity's trip.

"_And Felicity's mom, totally not what you would expect. A complete Mommie Dearest if you ask me._" Roy whispered again after another pause. "_Her mom is into some pretty intense shit, drugs with some shady dealers._" Roy paused again, presumably to hear what was happening in the other room. "_I will tell you this though, Felicity definitely got her loud voice from her mother, and Felicity being silent is even scarier. Please tell me you and Dig are almost here._"

Diggle looked at Oliver expectantly. Oliver knew it would be bad form to say I told you so in this moment, especially when he wanted to be wrong about Felicity potentially being in trouble.

"We are boarding the plane as we speak."

**Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment.**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Thank you everyone for your feedback, favs, and follows on the last chapter! You're all amazing and I really appreciate your interest in this story. This is the last part before Oliver and Diggle get to Vegas, so next chapter I promise for interaction between Oliver and Felicity. There was a part of this I wrestled with so I hope you all find it believable. I was also going to hold on to this part for a little longer but I've had a rough few days and needed a smile. **

**Chapter 4**

Roy exited the bathroom feeling only slightly better about their current situation. He knew Felicity was going to be pissed at him for calling Oliver, but in his defense both Oliver and Diggle were already on their way. The only thing Roy did was tell them how crazy Felicity's mother was and how he could see the wheels in Felicity's brain start to turn about the ways that they could help her mother get out of this situation. It wouldn't be the first time they did something semi-illegal to reach a legal solution.

Still, Roy felt guilty for betraying his roommate's trust. He knew that she didn't want Oliver and Diggle there- mainly because she was stubborn- and he had violated that trust. He was only going to the bathroom to step away from the brewing storm that was the Smoak women. Calling Oliver hadn't been his plan.

The dingy bathroom, with what he was sure was a dead cockroach in the bathtub, made him heave a heavy sigh. The house reminded him of his old house, before Thea entered his life. Roy hadn't cared about much past surviving; stealing if he had to, sometimes even if he was just bored. Then he stole the wrong purse and had pushy Thea Queen, princess of Starling City, beating down his door.

She kept trying to save him, even when he didn't want her to. She was stubborn, demanding, hard-headed, strong, beautiful, kind-hearted, and a million other adjectives…and then he broke her.

Granted others had already laid the groundwork for the carefully crafted fissures in the basis of her being, not knowing her father wasn't her real father, the man she thought was her father and her brother being presumed dead for five years, her brother coming home, hitting on her unknown brother, finding out the truth of her origins, being manipulated by others repeatedly… It was a wonder she stayed as put together as she had for as long as she did.

Even so, Roy felt the weight of what he had done, the lies he had told, in the name of 'protecting' her. Sometimes he wondered if she would have been better off knowing the truth or if this is where they always would have ended up. No matter what lies he told, his work with the Arrow and then getting dosed with Mirakuru were important to him and were who he really was. He knew that Thea didn't approve of this lifestyle he had found because she didn't want him to get hurt.

The truth of who he was may have only hurt her more coupled with the truth of her parentage. But he would never know.

When Felicity caught him trying to track Thea, after he crashed the new software, she kicked him out of the lair. He couldn't say he had ever been intimidated by Felicity. How could he be? He had seen her in her in Powerpuff Girls pajamas and eating chocolate mint chip ice cream straight from the container.

So when Felicity glared at him and told him to leave in a low voice he had never heard from Felicity before, Roy tried to explain himself but Oliver merely put a hand on his shoulder and motioned for him not to speak. But Roy being Roy didn't listen and tried once again to defend himself which caused Felicity to snap at him and tell him to get out in what he could only assume was her loud voice that they had all heard so much about.

He was pissed…at Thea…at Oliver…at Felicity, hell there were even some days where he was mad at Diggle too. Everyone kept moving on as if nothing was wrong, as if Slade had only laid waste to the city and not to the people they loved. Oliver still went on, business as usual; He went to meet with his lawyers throughout the weekdays, alternating his off days in the lair (he had more off days as the lawyers gathered information) and patrolling at night. Diggle got a new job, a new apartment, and he was having a new kid.

Felicity had moved on the quickest as she hadn't lost what the others had lost. Like Diggle she lost her job, but with intelligence and skills like hers there were more than enough job offers filtering into her inbox. She seemed as if nothing that had happened those hours had even phased her- they didn't even leave a dent. That made him angry.

Thea was gone. The only person he gave a damn about left, and while Oliver told him she would be safer without him- safer not knowing what he did or who he was- it was Felicity who stood strong beside Oliver. She never blinked. Roy was pretty sure that if Oliver asked her to jump, she would say 'how high?' and 'off what cliff?' because at one point he was pretty sure that was where Oliver was leading them.

Later that night, she came home to find him sitting on the couch in the dark, a beer in his hand. He didn't look up when she entered, just stayed staring straight ahead at the blank TV screen. He wasn't even sure why he came back to the town house, why he came back to her house. She didn't get it, she didn't understand what he was going through. She still had Oliver and her happy little technology. Maybe he came back because he wanted to yell at her like she had yelled at him.

Yet when she took off her jacket and hung it beside the door neither said anything. She walked into the living room slowly, not hesitant or fearful as she would have been months ago when he was on the Mirakuru, but just slow- very unlike Felicity.

Roy heaved a heavy sigh before taking a large gulp of his beer when she sat down on the couch next to him, silent.

"I'm not going to apologize." He told her, not looking at her.

He could sense her nod next to him and felt her take a deep breath.

"When I was five, my dad left." She started, slow and still not looking at him. "I wondered for years after he left if there was anything that I could have done to make him mad, to make him leave…"

Roy bit out a sudden, humorless laugh.

"No offense, but I have no interest in you trying to compare your life to mine." Roy told her sourly. "I'm not some kid who doesn't understand the way the world works, and I definitely don't need you trying to 'relate' to me, because our live are nowhere near the same."

Felicity nodded her head to his comment.

"I'm not trying to relate to you that way, Roy…at least not in the way you think I am." She paused, looking at his profile. "I was too young to do anything when my dad left, and by the time I could do something I had no leads to go on- no way to really find him…I may be a genius but even a genius needs something to start with. I am telling you this because I want you to know that I haven't forgotten that Thea left, or that it hurts you in ways you didn't know you could hurt.

"I haven't forgotten that even though you are no longer 'angry Roy', which is what I called you to myself during your Mirakuru phase, you are still angry. Nothing I say will change that."

Roy finally turned to look at her and noticed that she was giving him a warm smile and had a blue folder on her lap.

"This folder has all the information that I have been able to find on Thea and where she went. I've hit more dead ends lately than I would like, but I won't give up until I find her."

Roy hesitantly took the folder, almost afraid that it would disappear before his eyes.

"You did this?" Roy asked as he moved his eyes to her.

"Oliver and I have worked on it since you gave us the letter. We didn't want to tell you unless we could find something." Felicity told him with a shrug. Roy felt a crack in his anger. Of course Oliver would care about his sister, of course he would want to find her. And of course Felicity would be right by his side helping him. "You aren't the only one who lost her, you know?"

Felicity gave him one last reassuring smile before giving his arm a slight squeeze and getting up to move around the couch.

"And next time you touch my computers without asking how to use them first, I will hurt you." Felicity gave one last warning before going to her room. A week later all of his ballpoint pens exploded at work, guess it wouldn't be Felicity unless she exacted some (innocent) justice.

Now, standing in the Smoak bathroom having listened to Felicity's mother ask for help, and admit to being a less than good mother in so many ways, Roy knew that he was not the person who was equipped to help her through this. So he did the one thing he knew she would not want him to do, at least not yet- He called Oliver.

Roy rambled on the phone, something he was picking up from Felicity little by little, and told Oliver what he knew. Oliver was getting frustrated over the other end as Roy tried to tell him what was happening here, and that their girl needed him. As soon as the phone call ended, Oliver on his way with Diggle in tow, Roy felt equal parts relieved and anxious. Roy just hoped that she took the extra help better than she took her mother being into drugs and needing Felicity to bail her out of it- which was a good possibility.

"Please, baby, I just need a little help. Johnnie, he helped me out when I was in a rough spot and he got me through it." Roy heard Vivienne Smoak plead as he exited the small bathroom. Good, if she was still pleading then that meant that Felicity hadn't caved yet.

"Mom…" Felicity let out a sigh. "I don't know what you want me to do, I don't have that kind of money. Have you tried going to the cops? I mean if this Johnnie is as dangerous as you say then they might be able to keep you safe. And by old friend I'm assuming you mean your dealer so let's cut the lies on that one."

Roy heard Vivienne laugh, which to her credit was well-timed, but he didn't hear her object. Felicity had a good relationship with Detective Lance and now the District Attorney, but she must have forgotten all the times that the SCPD tried to put Oliver behind bars for being the Hood. Roy understood where Vivienne came from, being an addict meant that peoples stock in your credibility was much lower. If Vivienne went to the police with a complaint like this, chances are she would wind up in the cross hairs.

"Gee, I'm glad my suggestion was so funny." He saw Felicity roll her eyes and let her arms cross in front of her chest.

"It's not funny," Roy interrupted. "But think about it, there are a lot of negatives from where your mom is at."

"He's pretty and smart." Vivienne laughed again. "Oh baby girl, I know you have your life all figured out and perfect, but for those of us in the cheap seats life ain't that easy as 'go to the cops.' Most of them are either just as corrupt or they don't care about some cocktail waitress turned drug addict's claims."

"But I have a friend, she's a district attorney and maybe she can help." Felicity tried, standing up with enthusiasm. "There has to be a way to get you out of this-a legal way."

"Felicity-" Roy opened his mouth to speak but stopped when Vivienne stood from her seat and walked over to Felicity.

"You're still as naïve as always." Vivienne gave her a patronizing smile. "I'm going to go outside for some fresh air."

Roy shook his head when he saw Vivienne grab the pack of Marlboro lights from the side table and head outside. Felicity still stood where her mother left her, eyes closed and taking deep breaths. The police idea had potential, and maybe calling Laurel for legal advice would help, but DA Lance had no authority or influence in Las Vegas.

"I don't know how to help her short of draining my savings account." Felicity sighed as she turned to look at Roy.

"So don't." Roy shrugged.

"Very funny, but that's my mom."

"And what a fine example she is setting for you," Roy griped.

"Hey," Felicity objected, but she gave more objection to fast food suggestions than she did this.

"I'm serious." Roy told her, moving to stand in front of her. "She's gotten herself into this mess, let her get herself out of this. From the sounds of it, you don't owe her anything. I mean I'm all for making amends with crappy parents, but she doesn't have an ounce of remorse."

Felicity put a hand on his shoulder; gracious that he was on her side in this. Nevertheless this wasn't just another criminal that they faced nightly, this was her mother, and for all her faults, Vivienne Smoak raised her and loved her in her own way.

"I do owe her some…I abandoned her, just like my father did," As Roy was about to object Felicity cut him off. "And it's not just money trouble she is in…you heard her, she saw 'stuff' that she shouldn't have seen. You and I know enough about what that could mean to know that she could be in serious danger. If I leave her now it's not like I'd be letting her ruin her credit score, I'd be knowingly leaving my mother to possible physical harm."

Roy didn't respond. Vivienne didn't mention what exactly she saw, for all they knew she saw her dealer use the wrong toilet paper or something just as trivial. There was no evidence that she was in real trouble.

"Let's just call Laurel and see if she can give us some information. I'm not saying that my mom won't go to jail, because last I checked drugs were still illegal, but maybe it could give her some protection against whoever this Johnnie guy is."

"And you think your mom is just going to what? Roll over on her friend Johnnie because he might be doing something dangerous?" Roy shook his head incredulously. "I don't know your mom that well but she seems more like the self-preservation type than for the good of the order type."

Roy knew why Felicity was being so resistant, this was her mother, and Felicity was a good person. No matter what she did, Felicity would probably forgive her.

"And since when are you all about calling Laurel and not Oliver?" Roy asked, frustrated that Felicity was being so stubborn. When they had a problem they relied on the team, and Laurel wasn't a team member- at least not to him. "It's not like she can do anything about this anyway?"

"Laurel can give us legal advice." Felicity shrugged. "Why are you being so difficult?"

Roy laughed and ran a hand through his hair.

"I'm not the one being difficult, you're the one who won't call her damn best friend even though you are clearly in over your head." Roy could see the anger on Felicity's face and knew she was trying to work her response correctly.

It was as she was about to open her mouth in response that they heard the gun shots. At first he thought it may have been a car backfire but then he realized what the sounds really were. He had just enough time to push Felicity to the ground when three bullets came in the through the large living room window. He knew that some of the stray bullets were stopped by the bars across the outside.

"Stay down." He whispered as they heard tires screeching away from the front of the house.

Felicity whimpered below him which put him on alert. Had he been too late pushing her to the ground? Had she been hit?

"You're squashing my arm." Felicity whimpered.

He let out a sigh of relief as he sat up a little, making sure to stay below the window. While the car drove off, and it had become eerily quiet outside, he didn't want to chance it.

"You ok?" He asked, trying his best to keep his voice calm. "You hurt?"

Felicity shook her head and straightened her glasses on her face. He did an inventory to make sure that she wasn't lying to him. No bullet wounds, no blood-

"Roy, you're bleeding!" He followed her gaze and hand as it reached out to his side, just below his ribs. It didn't hurt, and there wasn't much blood.

He twisted and winced at the movement. He wasn't shot, he definitely would know by now since he knew that Felicity was ok. He was most likely grazed as he pushed Felicity to the floor.

"It's ok, I'm fine." He assured her as he moved his t-shirt to find his assumption correct. Nothing more a small graze, a nick really. "See?" He showed her, wincing at the pull of his skin as he moved.

The relief on her face as she put her hand over his assured him that they were both ok. Roy had lost a lot over the course of this past year and he wasn't sure if he could handle losing Felicity too.

Then he saw all the color leave her face and instantly put himself on high alert. And then in a whisper he realized why.

"My mom."

* * *

Felicity stood to the side as the EMTs continued to check her mother's vital signs. Luckily her mother hadn't been shot; she merely hit her head off of the cement patio when she saw the car pull up. As far as assassination attempts this one was definitely working in their favor.

"Ma'am, we strongly urge you to go to the hospital and get checked out." One of the EMTs struggled with Vivienne while she attempted to put the blood pressure cuff on her arm.

"And I'm strongly urging you to back the fuck up." Vivienne spat at the woman, causing Felicity to shake her head and intervene.

"Mom." Felicity tried to get her mother's attention, kneeling almost directly in front of her. "Mom, hey, hello."

Vivienne turned to look at Felicity and gave her a small smile.

"Mom, you need to let the paramedics check you out, ok?" Felicity told her calmly as she nodded to the EMT who now looked relieved and not annoyed. "You hit your head pretty hard and they are just trying to help you out."

Vivienne nodded before letting her head come to rest in her hand.

"I'm sorry," Vivienne's voice came out weak and teary. Felicity wasn't sure if she was talking to her or to the paramedic, but at this point it didn't matter. The more time she was spending with her mother the more Felicity was realizing just how much Vivienne Smoak had changed over the years- or maybe it was Felicity who had changed.

Felicity didn't respond to her mother and the paramedic just looked thankful that Vivienne was finally cooperating. Vivienne held Felicity's hand tightly with her free hand and kept her head ducked down. Felicity looked over to Roy who was talking to two of the patrol officers who had arrived on the scene only moments after the gun shots were fired.

Those moments in between finding out that Roy was ok and rushing outside were some of the longest moments for Felicity, and still they were not the longest moments of her life. Working with Oliver and Diggle had definitely shaved a few years off of her life in terms of anxiety inducing situations. Felicity shook herself out of her thoughts as Roy began to walk over to them and the paramedic finished her work.

"So the police want us to do our statements." Roy started, looking between Felicity and the paramedic for confirmation.

"Mrs. Smoak should come down to the hospital to get a head CT and to make sure that your head injury isn't more serious." She told Roy and Felicity, ignoring the look of outrage on Vivienne's face.

"I'm not-"

"Married, we know." Felicity sighed as she shot the paramedic, Tina, an apologetic look. "What if she refuses?"

"Which I am." Vivienne said as she stood up.

"Then I would suggest that you keep a close eye on her for the next twenty-four hours. Her vitals all look good, but with head injuries it's better safe than sorry. Unfortunately if a patient refuses to go the hospital and they are in stable condition we cannot force them." Tina assured Felicity, ignoring Vivienne.

"Mom, you really should go to the hospital." Felicity turned to her and put a comforting arm on her mother's shoulder. This day was just turning into too much. Only a few short hours ago they had been safely in Starling City and now they were dodging gunfire and figuring out a way to save her mother from dangerous drug dealers. She wished Oliver were there, and Diggle too.

"Felicity, I am fine." Vivienne smiled sweetly at her, causing Roy to roll his eyes. "And if handsome over there isn't being forced to go to the hospital for his gunshot wound then I'm not going for hitting my head on the sidewalk."

"Actually, I am going." Roy interrupted; even if he wasn't going to the hospital it would have been worth it just to see the look on Vivienne's face. "It's better safe than sorry, right Tina?"

Roy smiled wide at Tina the paramedic, causing Felicity to shoot him a 'shut up, you're not helping' look.

"Mom, please just let's-"

"No!" Vivienne shouted, gaining the officers attention, who were waiting calmly near Felicity's now bullet riddled rental (thank goodness for Rental Insurance, although Felicity wasn't sure if bullet holes qualified).

"Come on, Felicity." Roy urged as he stepped between Felicity and Vivienne. "We need to go."

Felicity looked helplessly at her mother once again.

"Please, just let the cops take you to the station then." Felicity moved out from behind Roy to get closer to her mother. Felicity didn't know who did the shooting, or who it was meant for, but it was too coincidental considering what her mother told them earlier. "Please, mom, just…I need to know that you are safe so that Roy and I can help you. The cops can help too if you let them."

Vivienne's expression softened as she brought a hand up to cup Felicity's cheek and gave her a small nod and a smile.

Felicity returned the smile and moved to follow Roy and Tina to the back of the ambulance. As Roy was escorted in the back of the vehicle, having been able to convince both EMTs that he didn't need to ride on the stretcher, Felicity glanced back at her mother who was talking to the police. She looked much calmer than she had a few minutes earlier.

Felicity let herself smile as she followed in behind Roy, noting the arrival of the tow truck to pick up the rental car, God that was going to be a headache later.

Once they were both seated Felicity felt herself relax, the adrenaline from the incident finally wearing off. Roy squeezed her hand gently in silent support as she once again wished for Oliver, but was also relieved that he hadn't been there to see this.

* * *

The hospital wasn't that busy, which Roy was grateful for. He didn't think he could handle a long wait to get the wound on his side looked at. It probably wouldn't need stitches or call for a trip to the hospital, but with the police present he could hardly say that he had suffered worse injuries as The Arrow's sidekick in Starling City.

"I'm just going to give your chart to our doctor and she'll come take a look." The nurse told him with a smile as he walked away, leaving Roy and Felicity to their curtained off area of the ER.

The ride to the hospital had been quiet with only Tina the paramedic trying to make conversation. Felicity stared out the back window of the ambulance, probably visualizing her mother's conversation with the police and wondering if she had told them just why they were being shot at. Roy too wondered if Vivienne had come forward and was now in lock up. Maybe this trip just got a bit easier thanks to the sloppy work of whoever was sent to shoot Felicity's mother.

Roy looked over to where Felicity was staring at her tablet, seemingly lost in whatever she was reading.

"You know, I'm the one who was shot." Roy looked around the room innocently. "Shouldn't you be fawning all over me, asking me if I'm ok?"

Felicity snorted, actually snorted, before looking up from the tablet.

"You were grazed, not shot, which is a distinction you need to remember when we go back to Starling City and see Oliver and Diggle."

"Yeah about that-" Roy tried to tell her about Oliver and Diggle being on their way, before Felicity stood up to pace the room.

"My mother lied," Roy looked at her questioningly as she held the tablet tightly as she moved around. "She lied to the police, in her statement."

"How do you-"

"I noticed that their squad cars had an upgraded mobile data terminal that can input statements directly into the police network instead of filing through paperwork." Roy nodded as though he followed her even though he wasn't even sure how she knew what the technology in a squad car could do, but this was Felicity after all. "After we left she must have refused to go to the station and gave them her statement there, which would account for how quickly it's on their network."

"You hacked the Las Vegas Police Department's network?" Roy asked incredulously.

"Yeah," She responded before moving on. "I needed to know where they were at with their investigation so I set the link up, but I didn't expect her statement to be there already."

Roy sighed before sitting up, the skin near the graze sight pulling as he did.

"So what did it say?"

Felicity sighed this time and began to rub her forehead with her free hand.

"She told them it was random, that I had just come out for a regular visit, that she had no idea who the car was, or why they would target her house."

"Are we sure that it was the dealers?" Roy asked. "Maybe it was random; we still don't know all the details about what exactly is going on with your mother."

"Roy, do you really think that there was a drive by shooting in that neighborhood on the same day that my mother, who I haven't spoken to in nearly five years calls and asks me- the daughter she hasn't spoken to in five years- for help with a drug dealer who apparently is into more dangerous criminal acts that my mother inadvertently found out about?"

Roy shook his head, but stopped his response when Felicity kept going.

"And if I tell the police what I really know, then they will know that my mother committed obstruction of justice and she will go to jail."

"As opposed to the unicorn and rainbow resort jail she will go to for using, illegally transporting, and potentially dealing drugs."

"Sarcasm not helping." Felicity muttered.

"Yeah well, if we don't tell the truth we become accessories to whatever the fuck is going on." Roy was losing his patience. Damn Vivienne Smoak for being such a terrible human being and getting Felicity involved in this whole mess.

"Roy what do we do?" Felicity whimpered. "Either way my mom goes to jail, and I know she's not mom of the year or anything, but she's still my mom."

Roy gave Felicity a sympathetic look before regretting in advance what he was about to suggest. If these guys were really as dangerous as Felicity's mother made it seem, then they were going to need help.

"If we play along with what your mother said in her statement, then we are calling Oliver and Diggle." At the objection playing on Felicity's face Roy kept talking. "You are an IT expert and I am a sort-of sidekick, neither of those are good for dangerous solo missions. Hell we were just caught in a shooting and we weren't even trying."

"I know, I just didn't want them to... I didn't want them see all of this." Felicity let herself fall into her seat.

"Well, I hate to break it to you, but now is not the time to keep this all hidden and they are probably worrying more that you cancelled lunch and hopped a plane to Vegas."

"At least they don't know that part yet, it's going to be hard enough explaining it later." Felicity shook her head.

Roy was about to tell her that they already knew when they were interrupted again.

"Miss Smoak?" Roy turned his head as an officer approached. He recognized him from the scene as one of the men who had talked to Felicity when they first arrived. "Officer Matthews and I are going to need to get your statement now."

Felicity nodded before grabbing her purse at her feet.

**AN: Don't forget to drop a line if you liked what you read!**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favs, and follows after the last chapter. I tried responding to the reviews I could, but if I didn't get to you I apologize. This chapter was a little more difficult than the others to write. The real world has been quite difficult as of late and it has been getting harder to find time to sit and work on the chapters the way I was, which means the editing process takes longer (I'm sure I will still find typos when I look through tomorrow morning).**

**Some possible trigger warnings: mentions of drug abuse/addiction and mentions of child neglect**

**Again, thank you all so much for your support, all your comments really inspire me to keep writing when I get discouraged. I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**Chapter 5**

"_This is ours?" She asked with a brilliant white smile that was that much wider due to the excitement written over both their faces. _

"_If you want it to be." He told her before leaning in to whisper in her ear. "It's got a big backyard and everything." _

_She turned in his arms, her brown ponytail swaying as she did. _

"_It'll be perfect for Meghan." She whispered against his lips. _

"_Meghan?" He pulled away, causing her to frown. "I thought we agreed on Felicity." _

_His smile brightened as he let his hand drift to her slightly rounded abdomen. They had just found out that they were having a girl, and both were thrilled. Vivienne Smoak had always wanted a little girl and her husband was more than happy when the doctor announced that in a few months their daughter would be gracing them with her presence. _

_Vivienne laughed and let her forehead fall to his as she felt her daughter begin to move. It was still too light to be felt by her husband as it was more like flutters in her stomach, which made Vivienne oddly satisfied. It was like she and her daughter already had a special bond that couldn't be replicated. She knew that once the baby was born she just knew that her daughter was going to be inseparable from her father, so Vivienne had to enjoy these moments while she had them. _

"_If you want Felicity, then she will be Felicity." He smiled at her before kissing her forehead. _

"_Did you know that Felicity means happiness?" He asked as he took her hand and began to lead her up the front walk to the red front door. _

"_Well then I love it even more, because I've never been happier." _

"_Me too." He assured her as they crossed the threshold to their first house as a family. _

_Vivienne always remembered that day when things were low. That's how she classified her life; a scale of being pregnant with a husband and a new home to watching both her husband and her daughter walk out the front door because Vivienne wasn't enough to keep them. That was her life, and everything in between those two spectrums just made her feel numb. _

"Mom?" Vivienne shook her head of the memory when she heard Felicity's voice ringing through the house. "Mom, are you here?"

Vivienne looked down at the small clear bag with the two remaining pills that she had taken from Johnnie. She took the two small pills of Adderall before things went bad and she knew that they were her last ones. Adderall wasn't what she normally took but she had heard some of the girls talking one night about how it helped them focus. Taking them would help her help Felicity, but they would also be it and then she would have to start going through withdrawal all over again. Granted she was barely even entering it now with only minor shakes and her sweats weren't that bad. She knew that in a few hours that would all be different. Vivienne didn't even know if these would help her, but she needed something- anything- to help her get back on track.

"Felicity, maybe we should just go." She heard the pretty boy say to Felicity, but she knew that her daughter wouldn't leave.

No matter what other people thought, Vivienne did love her daughter…maybe not in the way that most mothers did, but she loved that girl. The moment the doctor's placed her little pink baby in her arms, screaming for warmth, Vivienne knew that holding her daughter with her husband by her side was what true love felt like. Watching Felicity walk out the front door five years ago had been the hardest thing she had ever had to do. It was even worse than watching her husband leave.

Felicity was a smart girl, brilliant really, and she had a big heart. When Felicity was eight years old she kept going to their next door neighbor's house on Saturdays to help the elderly woman clean and do yard work. Vivienne had felt jealous that her own daughter would have rather spent more time with a stranger than with her, but she was also too tired from working the late shift to do anything about it.

Her daughter also had a gift for creating things, or taking things apart so she could put them back together. The night she came home to find Felicity tinkering with the TV set Vivienne had sent her off to her room without dinner which made her feel shame in herself as a mother. But in reality she was afraid. Vivienne knew that all that potential that Felicity had was a gift from her father…and that meant that Felicity would one day leave her too.

"There you are," Felicity's presence in her bedroom broke Vivienne from her memories. "I was worried."

Vivienne snorted in response. Of course Felicity would be worried about her. The girl cared too much to have the common sense to get as far away from Vivienne as possible. Vivienne only hurt the things she loved…it was why she was alone.

Vivienne's mind kept shifting and she couldn't remember why she had called Felicity in the first place. What could her daughter do to get her out of this mess? What would her daughter _want_ to do after what Vivienne had put her through?

"Mom?" Felicity tried again as she bent down to eye level with her mother.

"Why are you here?" Vivienne grunted as she stood from her curled position, bumping into Felicity as she did. "Why haven't you left yet?"

Vivienne could have sworn she saw what looked like tears welling up in Felicity's eyes, and some maternal side of her, a side that had long been dormant, wanted to comfort her daughter- But she pushed that thought aside.

"You called me for help." Felicity told her in confusion and frustration. "You also got shot at this afternoon and hit your head before refusing medical treatment. Oh and let's not forget the fact that you lied to the police. Where did you think I would go?"

"If you were smart you would be half way back to Starling City already." Vivienne murmured as she switched the pills to the other hand.

"I told her we should but I guess Felicity is a much better human being than you or I." Roy chimed in from the doorway.

"Why did you lie to the police? They could have helped." Felicity tried, keeping her voice soft as she moved towards her mother.

"Don't you think I would've gone to the police if they could have helped?" Vivienne's voice rose causing Roy to take a step forward and Felicity a step back. "Don't you think I want to get out of this without having to get you involved?"

"If you didn't want me here, why did you call me?" Felicity wrapped her arms around her chest as she spoke.

"I don't know," Vivienne shook her head almost manically. "This is a bad situation and it is the last place you should be."

"If you don't tell us what's going on we can't help you." Roy tried, taking one more step into the room.

Vivienne laughed to herself. How could these two help her? She was too far in and her bringing Felicity here was a mistake. But they told Vivienne that they knew about her 'pretty little daughter' and they knew who she worked for. Vivienne would have had no problem getting that money for them if she just called Felicity up. Vivienne just wanted the money, not for Felicity to get involved in this.

"You probably wouldn't remember this, but there was a night…you were fifteen…no sixteen…I was having a hard time finding work… Guess being a good cocktail waitress in this town meant that you didn't age too quickly."

Vivienne went back to the bed and sat down while Roy and Felicity stayed standing in front of her. She never wanted Felicity to know any of this; she wanted her daughter safe from this. Felicity was just supposed to come here and give her the money she needed and then leave. Nothing more.

"Anyway, that night I met Johnnie and he connected me to this underground casino that had some very high up clientele. The money was great and…after you left, it was all I had… There was a man, Russell, who was some former corrupt politician from one of the Carolinas, I think." Vivienne shook her head as she tried to remember. "Like Johnnie, he took care of me. He made sure I was able to be up when I needed to be up, and down when I needed to be down."

"He drugged you?" Felicity asked, trying her best to keep her voice level.

"Oh don't get all high and mighty," Vivienne rolled her eyes. "Russell never forced me to do anything I didn't want to do. He just made sure I had the supplies I needed."

Vivienne watched as Felicity tensed and Roy put a hand on her shoulder, what did Felicity need comforting for? Vivienne was the one with the price on her head?

"Anyway, Russell was skimming off of Johnnie's profit…I guess the casino was front for some other illegal activity…I don't know the details I just know that some high up political people were involved. Johnnie found out and he said that I was part of it now, that I had a debt to pay off."

"And that's when you started taking the trips to Mexico." Roy filled in the blanks.

"I thought I was doing good, and Johnnie wasn't as angry anymore…" Vivienne took a moment to close her eyes as if she were reliving it all. "But then one night I went to see him in his office and I saw him arguing with Russell. Something about none of this being a part of the plan and that Russell backed him into a corner." Vivienne paused and looked away from Felicity to the pills in her hands. "Then Johnnie shot Russell."

"Mom, when did this happen?" Felicity asked as she moved to sit next to her on the bed.

"Yesterday, or this morning… I guess." Vivienne wiped an errant tear away from her face. "Johnnie didn't know that I saw."

"Well I hate to break it to you but I think he knows more than you think he does if he sent people to shoot you a couple hours ago." Roy added.

"We should go to the cops." Felicity supplied before shooting a look at Roy.

"Weren't you listening, babydoll?" Vivienne turned to look at her. "Johnnie has connections, there's nothing I can do other than paying him."

"Mom there has to be something we can do-"

"Enough." Vivienne cut her off before Felicity could get moving with a plan. "It was a mistake calling you. I thought you had money and could get me out of this, not threaten to call the cops on me."

"Mom," Felicity was taken aback at her mother's tone. "We just want to help."

"Well then help me by getting the hell out of my house!" Vivienne told her before getting up and leaving the room.

"_Mommy, I'm ready for school." Vivienne heard Felicity's voice outside of her door but couldn't bring herself to move. "Mommy, can I have pancakes?" _

_Vivienne pulled a pillow over her ears as she waited for the sounds of Felicity's light footsteps padding down their carpeted hall. _

_He had been gone for three weeks now and the only time Vivienne left her bed was to walk Felicity to the bus stop in the morning and then again in the afternoon to pick her up, but now those trips were starting to wear on her. _

_How could he leave her and their daughter this way? He made promises and said he was happy. Happy men don't just leave. _

_He was always out in the garage with his projects in the evening. She never knew what he was working on but she knew that he would get home from work around five o'clock, eat dinner with her and Felicity, go out to the garage-sometimes bring Felicity with him- and then tuck Felicity in before going back out to work. Maybe she should go out there and see what she could find…But that would require her moving, and right now, she didn't want to. _

_The sound of clanging metal and a shriek that sounded like her daughter had Vivienne bolt right out of bed. _

"_Felicity?" Vivienne called as she ran around the corner of her bedroom door and into the hallway. She could feel her heart clench at the thought of something happening to Felicity, her happiness. _

_Vivienne's chest began to constrict as she ran around the last sharp corner and into the kitchen where Felicity sat on the ground, tears in her eyes, surrounded by pots, pans, and a now empty bag of flour. _

"_Felicity? Are you ok, baby?" Vivienne ran to her daughter and bent down in front of her. Vivienne couldn't see any blood as she ran her hands over Felicity's head, arms, legs, and then back up to her face. "Baby, talk to mommy…are you hurt?" _

_Felicity shook her head but her tears continued to fall. _

"_Sweetie, why are you crying?" Vivienne asked as she released a panicked exhale from her chest. _

"_I wanted to make you pancakes because that's what you always make me when I'm sad." Vivienne's eyes softened as she looked over her daughter. Felicity was looking down at where the flour was coating the kitchen floor as well as Felicity's pink OshKosh overalls. _

_Vivienne sat down on the floor in front of her daughter. Her five year old who wanted to take care of her because she was sad. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't Vivienne be making Felicity pancakes just because? _

"_Well what do you say we clean this up," Vivienne reached out and wiped a lingering tear off of Felicity's baby soft cheek before running a hand through her light brown hair. "And then I'll make us some eggs and toast." _

_Felicity nodded, the mess of flour all but forgotten as she stood and moved to wrap her arms around her mother. Vivienne could do this, she could be a single mother to her daughter. She could totally do this. _

_One week later Vivienne lost her job for the first time. _

It was only four thirty two in the afternoon when Roy and Felicity left Vivienne Smoak's house. The sun was still out and a couple kids down the street were throwing a ball back and forth.

"I need to…" Felicity trailed off as she held up her phone in her right hand. Roy nodded and walked towards the curb to wait with the cab they had taken from the hospital only a half hour earlier. When they got to the house Felicity had told him to send the cab away, but Roy had a feeling they would need it sooner rather than later.

He hated that he was right.

Once Vivienne told them both to get out of her house, she then locked herself in her bathroom. While Felicity knocked on the door, pounded really, to try to coax her mother out, Roy stood behind her wishing that Vivienne Smoak would just give them an inch. If she did then Felicity, Roy, Oliver, and Diggle could help her.

While Felicity was giving her statement to the police, Roy had dialed Oliver and John and left a message detailing where they were staying and what room number. Oliver had mentioned that they had a layover in Long Beach, California which was why it was taking them so long to get there. Hopefully the men were arriving soon.

Roy glanced back at Felicity as she pulled the phone up to her ear. With any luck she was calling Oliver and not Laurel. Roy had nothing against the lawyer except for the fact that he got the feeling that she was angling for Sara's spot on the team. She kept taking Felicity for coffee and lunch on the weekends, chatting with Dig about the baby, and giving Roy the sympathetic head tilt whenever Thea came up in conversation; it was annoying. There was also the fact that she only changed her opinion on the Arrow when she found out he was Oliver; not because she believed in what they were doing.

Felicity held her breath as she waited for Oliver's phone to ring, but instead it went straight to voicemail. She wasn't sure if she was happier that it turned out that way or not. She waited while she listened to his voicemail message, the voice of playboy Oliver, tell her he would call her back when he got the message before the final beep indicated for her to begin.

"Oliver…It's me…Felicity… Of course you know who me is…I mean I am…" Felicity took a deep breath before starting again. "I didn't have a lunch meeting today…I'm in Las Vegas, with Roy…to see my mother." Felicity cringed as she thought back to their day so far. "Anyway, things with my mother have gotten pretty bad…and Roy and I are in over our heads and I…I need you…I need you here." Felicity closed her eyes. It wasn't hard admitting it but it was difficult to think of Oliver here to witness her dysfunctional relationship with her mother. Still she couldn't deny that she needed Oliver. "So if you could give me a call back and I can tell you more…" She trailed off as the beep cut her off.

Felicity took another breath before turning to walk towards where Roy and the cab waited.

"Feel better?" He asked as he let her slide into the car first. "You called Oliver, right?"

Felicity bit back a small chuckle.

"Yeah, I called Oliver." Felicity told him as he got into the car next, murmuring a 'thank God' under his breath. "It went straight to voicemail though so-" Felicity trailed off when she caught the look on Roy's face as the cab pulled away from her mother's house. "What is with your face?"

"My face?...This face?" Roy asked, clearly trying to play innocent, but Felicity just stared at him until he finally caved. Oliver wasn't the only poor liar in the group. "Ok, so I kind of already called Oliver, and Diggle too, and told them we were here."

Felicity felt the blood rush out of her face and a dizziness began to settle in.

"They already know…?" Felicity tried forming the words.

"Yeah, and they are already on their way…which from the look on your face-"

"When did you call Oliver?" Felicity cut him off. A lot had happened that day and she wanted to know when her little Brutus made his move.

"When I was in the bathroom…before I was shot." Roy told her succinctly, causing the cab driver to glance back at them in the rear view mirror.

"A. You were grazed." Felicity told him, ignoring the cab driver. "B…"

"They were already on their way so you don't have to blame me." Roy cut her off. "They already knew where we were and were getting on the plane when I called. So before you scare the cab driver with your loud voice, stop."

Felicity sat back in her seat and looked out the window. She really couldn't be too mad at Roy when he was only trying to help. If he was right and they were already on their way then she would have to have a separate conversation with them about boundaries and personal privacy…but that could come later. After they saved her mother.

"She wasn't always like this." Felicity told him in a small voice. "My mom, she wasn't always this…broken."

Roy looked up at her and waited for her to keep going.

"When I was little, right after my dad left, she really did try to be a good mother. But she was just…"

Roy let a hand slide over and lay on top of Felicity's.

"She was afraid I would leave her too, and then one day she stopped being my mother and she just…she changed." Felicity felt her eyes start to well up and willed them to stop. "That must have been when she met Johnnie."

Roy nodded beside her before letting the silence fill the cab.

"I do have one question." Roy interrupted. "How did you get to be so…you? I mean with a mother like that I'm just surprised that you made it out of here in one piece."

"I had this neighbor…Ms. Baruch. She noticed me a couple times walking to school by myself and she would stop and talk to me. She was from Brooklyn and had this thick New York accent," Felicity smiled as she remembered the older woman. "I was fascinated with her. Eventually she caught on to the fact that I didn't have lunch and that mom wasn't around much, so she started making me these sandwiches and cookies."

Roy smiled as she talked about this woman who sounded like she cared about her more than her own mother did.

"I would go to her house on the weekend and help her with house work and listen to her tell stories about her family. She was Jewish and told me all about her family's traditions and even took me to the synagogue a couple times... My mom worked most holidays so one year I just showed up at her door and I just couldn't understand why she didn't have a Christmas tree. She sat me down and explained all about Hanukkah and the menorah, and what that time of year meant to her."

Roy noticed a sad smile appear on Felicity's face.

"She encouraged me to go to MIT when I got the acceptance letter and wrote me letters every week while I was there. Then one month the letters stopped coming every week and she couldn't remember what we were talking about on the phone or little things that had happened."

Felicity turned to look out the window as she spoke.

"Three months later I flew home to go to her funeral. The doctor's couldn't account for how fast everything happened, but it did…After she passed I would visit her brothers and sisters and their families during the holidays when I didn't haven anywhere else to go. My sophomore year of college I converted to Judaism. Ms. Baruch and her family felt more like home to me than what I grew up believing."

The little glimpses that Roy was getting into Felicity's past made more sense with each piece he received. This woman sitting next to him had had a mother who basically neglected her and forced her to raise herself while relying on the kindness of her neighbor. It didn't make any sense to Roy how anyone could not love Felicity Smoak. At least she had a positive role model growing up in Ms. Baruch.

It also made more sense to him on why Felicity was so keen on taking him in instead of letting him fend for himself. She grew up knowing that sometimes the family that mattered was the one that you created, not the one you were given.

"So, Oliver and John are already on their way?"

Roy nodded beside her as she reached over and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. As the cab came to a stop Roy looked up and saw the motel they had checked in at earlier that afternoon. Felicity looked up from where she was staring at the floor of the car, weary. The day had taken so much out of her that she looked like she was about to collapse.

"You ready?" He asked as he began to open the door.

With a nod of her head Felicity paid the cab driver and opened her car door before stepping out into the sunshine. It seemed to be hotter than it was earlier when they had been going into her mother's house. The climb to their second story motel room seemed even longer in the heat and Roy was once again thankful that his red hoodie was packed in his bag, safely in their room. While Felicity was pulling their keycard out of her pocket he checked his cell phone. Still no call from Oliver and Diggle.

"You know, you could probably take a nap while we wait for the cavalry." Roy told her with a smile.

"As nice as that sounds…" Felicity trailed off as she opened the door to find Diggle sitting on one bed and Oliver standing up from what looked to be his spot at the small desk. "I don't think that's going to be happening right now."

Felicity and Roy took a few steps into the motel room before closing the door behind them. Roy could see the way Oliver's shoulders tense under his grey button up. Diggle sat with his forearms on his knees obviously trying to brace himself for Felicity and Oliver to begin going at each other.

It wasn't a secret how Oliver looked at Felicity or how Felicity never failed to call Oliver out on his actions. They had feelings for each other. Knowing the two of them cared about each other as they did Roy just expected that one of them start arguing that the other was wrong in their actions today; Felicity did hop a plane to Vegas without telling him or Diggle, while Oliver tracked her down while using probably questionable methods for a non-serious situation (at least from what Oliver knew). Roy was choosing to leave Diggle and him out of this argument because their roles wouldn't matter when Oliver and Felicity got started.

Roy moved to the bed to sit next to Diggle, hoping to get out of the potential crossfire. He had already been shot once that day.

"I'm sorry," Felicity spoke up, making Roy's and Diggle's heads snap up to look at her.

He wasn't exaggerating when he told her she needed a nap. She looked exhausted, probably more mentally than physically though.

"I shouldn't have…I should have told you about my mom, or even Diggle…but, really, I don't _need_ to tell you every little thing about my life or when I leave Starling City, especially nonthreatening things such as visiting my mother-" Felicity stopped her ramble when Roy cleared his throat.

"I wish you would have told me, told us, what was going on." Oliver told her as he gestured to Diggle and himself as he took advantage of Roy's distraction. "I am sorry for tracking you out here against your wishes though."

"No you're not." Felicity smirked at him to which he gave her a small smile.

"No, I'm not. I knew something was wrong when you cancelled." Oliver told her. "What kind of partner would I be if I ignored my instincts?"

Felicity rolled her eyes at his response.

"How did you guys track us? Roy said you were boarding a plane when he called." Felicity looked between Oliver and Diggle.

"We used the computers in the lair." Oliver shrugged before glancing at Diggle who only nodded.

Felicity appraised them before looking back to Oliver who was trying to look innocent.

"You had Lyla do it." She guessed, but to Oliver and Diggle's relief she didn't look mad only amused.

"In my defense, Diggle had already asked her to do it before I knew about it." Oliver gestured to their partner who looked between the two. "He was worried too."

Felicity let out a smile and small chuckle at both men.

"So now that no one is yelling," Diggle started as he stood from his spot on the bed. "How about you and Roy catch us up?"

Felicity let out a small groan before bringing her hands up to massage her temples. Roy noticed Oliver's eyes do a double take when Felicity lifted her arms. Diggle did the same thing before turning to look at Roy. Both men in front of them stared at Felicity and Roy with wide eyes causing Roy to look over at Felicity to see what they were staring at.

She had a little bit of blood, probably smeared from when she had tried to apply pressure on the graze. Roy looked down at his shirt and noticed the small tear where he was grazed. Luckily with a red shirt, the blood was harder to see.

"Felicity" Oliver drawled out. "Why do you have blood on your shirt?" Roy could sense the muted panic in Oliver's voice as Diggle took a step towards her.

"Oh!" Felicity let out as she glanced over at Roy. "Oh no, it's not my blood." Oliver and Diggle looked between the two with expectant glances. "Not that that makes it any better that I have blood on my shirt, but it's Roy's blood." She gestured over to him.

"I got shot." Roy told them obviously.

"Grazed," Felicity gritted out. "Remember that distinction is very important."

"Ok, someone want to explain how Roy got shot?" Diggle began.

"Grazed," Felicity interrupted, causing her to receive two mild glares from both Oliver and Diggle.

"Fine, _grazed_," Diggle substituted.

"We were kind of involved in a shootout," Roy told them in a matter of fact tone.

"Roy!" Felicity snapped when she saw Oliver's eyes go wide and his jaw tense. "It sounds bad out of context."

"Felicity's drug addict mother, who was the target of a very poor assassination attempt, got on the wrong side of a dealer who has ties to more violent and corrupt organizations." Roy added before turning to look at her. "See, still bad in context."

Diggle looked between the two with his hands now on his hips. Roy felt that he was holding back the urge to scold them for not calling sooner. In their defense they had no idea gun play was going to be involved in the trip.

"I did call you, did you get the message." Felicity tried, seeing as how Oliver's jawline looked like it was so tense it would shatter his teeth if he didn't release it.

"Was that before or after the _shooting_?" Oliver asked, still tense.

"After," Felicity told them. "In our defense, we were handling the situation, and we didn't know about the guns."

Roy nodded along. "That's how we came to commit obstruction of justice when we gave false witness statements to the cops in order to protect Felicity's mother who also gave them a false statement."

Felicity turned to glare at Roy, eyes wide. Roy shrugged his shoulders in response.

"So you two have had a very eventful trip so far," Diggle shook his head before looking to Oliver. "What do you think?"

As Oliver was about to open his mouth to speak, Felicity interrupted them.

"No, don't ask him," Felicity snapped. "You two can't just come here and think you can save the day while completely negating the fact that this is my life, my mother, and my responsibility to handle."

"Felicity, that is not what anyone is trying to do," Diggle tried before she cut him off.

"I was handling things just fine before you two decided to have your girlfriend put a trace on me," Felicity gestured towards Diggle.

"I wouldn't say you were handling things just fine." Roy interrupted.

Felicity turned to shoot Roy another withering glare before turning back to Oliver and Diggle.

"I had a plan, a plan that can work and can get my mother out of this mess and cleaned up-"

"No," Oliver shook his head from his spot against the desk. "Our biggest concern is getting you and Roy out of this."

Felicity gave a mirthless laugh before bringing her hands up to her hair in frustration.

"How is this any different from when we knew that your mother was a part of the undertaking but you kept telling us no and that she was off limits, or when Dig went to Russia after Lyla? Is it because this time it's my family?" Felicity tried.

"Family blinds us, Felicity," Oliver stood a little straighter. "And yeah, because it was my mother involved we were almost too late to stop it from happening. Take it from me when I say that you are not objective when it comes to this situation."

"You're also forgetting the part where we confronted all those things as a team." Dig spoke up.

"So you're saying I should give up on my mother?" Felicity asked, cursing herself for the buildup of tears in her eyes.

"No, that's not what I'm saying." Oliver took a step forward. "I'm saying that our first priority is you…and Roy."

"Thanks for the afterthought." Roy complained from his spot on the bed, earning him a glare from Oliver.

Felicity looked at the men in front of her, all three loyal and supportive to her. They were her family and she was putting them all in jeopardy by wanting to help her mother-the woman who barely spoke to her after she left for college and then vanished when she graduated. She didn't lie to Roy when she told him that her mother hadn't always been this way. There was a point in Felicity's life when her mother was trying to be stable.

None of them saw that though. Roy saw the woman who was getting her own daughter involved in a dangerous situation while Oliver and Diggle saw the person who had all but forced Felicity into committing a crime and putting herself at risk. They didn't see the woman who made pancakes for breakfast or told her funny stories about some of the people she saw at the casinos. Granted her mother wasn't mom of the year, but there was a time when she wasn't this person.

"I think I need some air." Felicity mumbled before she turned on her heel and stumbled through the motel room door, Oliver close behind.

"Felicity would you please come back inside?" Oliver tried again as Felicity stomped down the metal staircase leading to the first floor of rooms below.

"No!" She whimpered, not turning to look at him as she made it to the bottom and began walking towards the parking lot.

Oliver sighed before starting down to catch up with her. Felicity had a fire in her and had no issue with calling him an ass when the occasion called for it, and she was fully capable of standing up for herself, but this was different. This wasn't an issue at work that she could solve with a computer; this was a very serious issue. He knew from personal experience how it felt to have your own mother betray you and to not be the person you thought she was.

"You know, this is typical you." Felicity spun around with her finger pointed at him, not anticipating him to be so close. Lowering her voice she continued. "You just swoop in and think that you can fix everything that is wrong."

"Felicity-" She stopped him.

"No," She paused to take a deep breath. "I know that you don't think you can fix everything, I know how hard you have fought to protect Starling City and how hard you are fighting to save your family's legacy…But this, right now, is not Starling or your family…it's mine. And it's complicated and messy and has never been easy."

Oliver took a step towards her once he was sure she was calm enough to not start walking away again. She looked like she was about to cry, which made him want to comfort her and take away all of this undue pain her mother was causing her. He wanted to make Felicity's life better the way she had made his life better just by being in it.

"We haven't talked since I graduated college." She gave a tear-soaked laugh, which made Oliver take another step towards her. "That was in 2009…that was five years ago, Oliver. I kept trying to call her, get her to talk to me, but at the same time I didn't want to talk to her."

Felicity looked up at Oliver, who was now within arm's reach, before she wiped a stray tear from her eye. He didn't say anything, didn't comment. He just listened, taking it all in, taking her all in. Felicity never talked about her family, with the exception of her father, and he could see the pain clearly etched across her face.

"Not seeing her and talking to her was like a weight lifted off of me." She let out a hollow laugh. "What kind of daughter says that about her mother? Sure all girls get mad at their moms once in a while, but who actually says that their life is better without them in it? What kind of person does that make me?"

Oliver could see her begin to let the feelings overwhelm her and did the one thing that always worked for a rambling Felicity. He placed both of his hands on her shoulders and bent down so he could try to catch her eyes. Once they made eye contact he stood a little straighter, letting his thumbs rub gentle circles on her shoulders.

"You are not a terrible person." He told her softly. "You are the most remarkable person I know."

Felicity let out a shaky breath as he continued, never breaking eye contact.

"You are the person who showed me that there was another way to save the city. You're the one who helped me save my family's company, the first time, and you will be the one who helps me save it again… You don't give up or run away from problems, you face any challenge head on…with amazing courage… And the very fact that you are struggling with this shows me that you still love your mother, you're just hurting."

He smiled at her and brought a hand up to wipe away her tears, which were now running freely.

"And you are not alone." He breathed out.

She gave him a shaky smile and a nod before grabbing hold of the hand that was still on her shoulder.

"When did you get so good at the pep talks?" Felicity laughed.

"Since I have had to hear you and Diggle recite them to me regularly." He winked and smiled the 'Oliver billionaire playboy' smile. "Come on, let's go inside and make a plan."

She nodded and let the hand that was still on her shoulder snake around her back as he turned to her other side. Felicity smiled as she felt his arm circle her waist as he led her back to the motel room.

**AN: Thank you for reading! **


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: I apologize for the delay. Life has been very, very hectic, but bright spot is that my sister had her baby so I have a new niece! More at the end of the chapter...**

**Chapter 6**

"Ok, so what do we know so far?" Diggle asked as Roy propped himself up against the back of the bed he was sitting on.

Felicity was going to need all of their help with this situation if she was sure she wanted to stay. Diggle would have preferred that they returned to Starling City but he also understood that even if their relationship was bad, Vivienne Smoak was Felicity's mother. He also knew that Felicity wouldn't handle leaving a situation when _anyone_ needed their help, let alone her mother.

While Oliver worked on getting Felicity back inside the room, he would speak with Roy and try to gather as much information as he could. If they could formulate a plan then just maybe they would be able to leave this place, and Felicity's bad memories, behind.

"Well, Vivienne said that she got involved with this Johnnie guy when Felicity was sixteen and now she owes him _quite_ a bit of money." Roy stated. "I assume she owes it because this other guy Russell, who I think Vivienne was sleeping with, was skimming money from Johnnie's business so he could give Vivienne drugs."

Diggle nodded as he moved to sit in the desk chair across the room. Diggle didn't like making assumptions about people when he didn't know their story, although he was a good judge of character. He was finding it hard to believe all that Roy was telling them. Felicity was such a strong and capable woman; a woman that they were all proud to work with. So he wondered, how her mother could put her in such a situation.

"So it's just about money?" Diggle asked.

Roy shook his head in response and looked toward the door to see if Felicity and Oliver were coming yet.

"Hey, the sooner we know what we are dealing with, the faster we can get Felicity out of here." Diggle assured him.

"It's not that." Roy looked to Diggle. "I always thought Felicity was normal…well sort of normal."

Diggle smiled as he thought of how Felicity had taken Roy in and began helping him. Their relationship was pretty strong now and he enjoyed seeing how protective of her Roy was. Felicity was able to make anyone fall in love with her. The idea that she had two very protective older brother figures, and Oliver, made Diggle feel better about her security.

"But meeting her mother, and seeing where she came from…" Roy closed his eyes. "The fact that she wants to help her mother right now amazes me, and that was before we were shot at."

Diggle sat silently while he waited for Roy to continue.

"Vivienne said that she saw Johnnie kill Russell and that's why Johnnie now wants her dead. I feel like there is more to the story than what she is telling us though." Roy told him. "Like why did she call Felicity now? What is she supposed to do to get Vivienne out of this? When you listen to her talk to Felicity it's almost like she doesn't even want her there, like she doesn't even like her."

Roy shook his head in disgust. Diggle could tell that Roy didn't receive the best impression of Felicity's mother and he wondered how he and Oliver would have reacted. Probably not well. Diggle could admit that he was a little hurt that Felicity had asked Roy to come with her instead of him or Oliver. They were better trained and had been a team for over two years now. While he was grateful that she brought Roy and hadn't been alone, he still wished that she had felt comfortable enough to rely on him.

"What could she possibly be hiding?" Diggle asked.

Roy shrugged in response before moving his arms to cross in front of his chest, wincing at the movement.

"Do you need me to check your wound?" Diggle offered the younger man to which Roy only shook his head in response.

"They gave me a couple of stitches at the hospital but I wouldn't let them give me anything for the pain besides the anesthetic, and that's starting to wear off."

"Why no pain meds?" He asked in confusion. Whenever anyone was hurt on a mission they always had something on hand to help with the pain; it aided in recovery time.

"I didn't know when you guys would get here and I couldn't be all…" Roy paused as he formed his words. Clearly this trip was starting to weigh on Roy also. "I could be out of it if something happened." Roy shrugged in response. "Besides if anything happened to Felicity you and Oliver probably would kill me…so there's that."

Diggle chuckled before sitting on the bed near Roy.

"You're a good guy Roy Harper." He offered, bringing a slight smile to Roy's face. "You did a good job today, and I don't think you've been told that so far."

Roy looked away, clearly embarrassed at the attention. He knew that for Diggle to give him a compliment it meant something. Dig knew that Roy sometimes felt like the outcast, as though he only fit in with Felicity, but he was just as much a member of the team as he and Felicity were.

"Hey," Diggle stood as Oliver led Felicity into the room, closing the door behind them. "You ok?"

Felicity only nodded before moving to give Diggle a hug.

"Thank you for being here." She murmured as she pressed her face into his chest.

John wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes. She was safe, and he fully intended to keep it that way.

"We're going to head back to Mrs. Smoak's house-"

"Don't call her that." Roy interrupted Oliver with a snort. "She'll take your head off for that."

Oliver and Felicity both sent him a quick glower before Oliver continued, Felicity still safe in Diggle's arms.

"We're going to go back and see if we can convince her to come here with us and maybe give us some more information."

Diggle nodded before glancing down at the blonde in his arms.

"Roy and I will start going over what we know and see what kind of plan we can come up with." He told them. "Did you bring your tablet?"

Felicity nodded before moving to her purse that sat near the entrance way to the motel room.

"I figure we can see what we can find on underground casinos and if we can pinpoint this Johnnie."

Felicity handed the tablet to Diggle before furrowing her brow.

"You most likely won't find anything on the underground scene through my tablet. Maybe if we were in the lair…" She trailed off. "We don't even know if Johnnie is his real name."

"Which is what we will find out from your mom." Oliver told her as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "The more information we have about this guy and his operation, the better chance we have of solving this."

"I have a question that maybe we should address before we go ahead with operation 'save Felicity's mom'." Roy spoke up. "What about our police statements? We lied, and while we don't always have the best track record with the justice system in that we work outside of the law most evenings, there's still a chance we could get caught."

Diggle looked slightly amused from his corner of the room while Oliver just shook his head.

"That won't be an issue." He told Roy as he shifted his feet. "It wouldn't be the first time we've lied to the police, and this time we have A.R.G.U.S. on our side if things do go south."

Roy gave out a mirthless chuckle while shaking his head. Diggle could tell that he didn't trust easily and their new partnerships hadn't set well with him.

"I just love how you say that like it's a good thing."

"You two be careful and call if anything comes up." Diggle told them, ignoring Roy's comment.

Oliver nodded his head and followed Felicity out of the room.

* * *

_It wasn't always like this_, Felicity thought repeatedly throughout the day. When Roy met her mother and saw firsthand how messed up Vivienne Smoak could be Felicity had tried to tell him that it wasn't always like this. When bullets rained over her mother's front patio and in her living room Felicity willed herself to remember that it wasn't always like this. Sitting in a hospital trauma room, waiting for a doctor to see to Roy's injuries, and reading her mother's false statement Felicity held tight to the memory that it wasn't always like this.

Seeing Oliver and Diggle appearing to wait patiently in a seedy motel near the airport, waiting for Felicity to come back and tell them her story-her sad story of a childhood lost and a single mother who tried so hard but failed more than she succeeded-she reminded herself that it wasn't always like this.

Felicity's mother used to remind her that her name meant 'happiness' and because she was Vivienne's daughter it meant that Felicity was Vivienne's happiness. As a child Felicity loved the idea that she alone could make her mother happy. A six, seven, and eight year old doesn't understand the weight that a statement like that could bring, or how Felicity would have actually been enough for her mother had the statement actually been true. When she was eleven, Felicity knew beyond reasonable doubt that being a mother, working multiple jobs to support herself and her daughter, constantly getting laid off, and struggling the way that she did would never make her mother happy.

Her mother tried being a good mother, Felicity knew that. She would get up early on Saturday morning after a late shift and make Felicity pancakes and spend the morning doing the crossword puzzle at the kitchen table, laughing when Felicity wanted to do it in pen. Vivienne would always come into her room when she got home from work and tuck Felicity in, even though she was already asleep. She would ask Felicity about her day and seem to hang on every word that the child said. One thing that Felicity noted early on was that her mother hated when she talked about anything technology related.

At fourteen, Felicity began hating the meaning of her name. Her mother never told her that she was what made her happy anymore and the lay-offs became closer in frequency. Sure her mother still tried, but the feelings of love and family was gone from their home. As a child she learned that she couldn't live up to her name, at least where her mother was concerned.

Ms. Baruch tried to turn that attitude around, but after years of seeing her own failed attempts at making her mother happy, how could a young Felicity believe her. She only had a few friends in high school, none of which stuck around long enough to see her leave for MIT. It was only after her years at MIT and the beginnings of a new life that Felicity began to feel like she was enough. She knew that while she might not be enough to make someone else happy, she made herself happy.

Then a formerly ship-wrecked billionaire turns up in her office and began to believe she could be more-she could help. She was stronger than she was all those years ago, living with her struggling mother, she was happier. Oliver, Diggle, and now Roy made her feel like she had a family for the first time since her friendship with Ms. Baruch.

Coming back here brought all those memories back, both good and bad. While Oliver, Diggle, and Roy were seeing this version of her mother they didn't see the good side. They didn't understand why Felicity wanted to stay and help and cover up for her with the police. Felicity saw her mom, for better or worse.

* * *

"Wait one minute," Oliver rushed out as he moved in front of Felicity, in effect, blocking her from opening the passenger door to the car while angling his body so that they were a breath apart.

"What?" Felicity asked with a curious glance at his now close proximity to her. "Did you want me to drive?"

"No, I…" Oliver trailed off as he shook his head and let out a breath of air.

Felicity gave him a comforting smile before raising a hand to grasp his arm, making him instantly relax. Oliver had noticed that a single touch from either of them could calm the other. Oliver had started doing it soon after Felicity joined the team, placing a hand on her shoulder to stop a ramble or as a show of support. After only months of helping Oliver and Diggle, Felicity began doing the same for him. Her putting a hand on his arm for comfort, hugging him when he returned from fights, were her ways of showing support. They were more gradual than his touches, more hesitant, which led Oliver to feel like they really meant something. It was as though her touches had a hidden meaning, which helped Oliver become more intentional with his.

"Felicity…Why didn't you call me?" His voice was small and quiet.

Knowing that she had relied on Roy to help her was good, he was happy that she didn't come alone. It still hurt, though, that she hadn't asked him.

They had made progress in the past five months, since the 'I love you' that he had a hard time not dreaming about at night. Getting the lair in order had brought more long nights alone as Diggle went home to Lyla and Roy went back to Felicity's townhouse. There would be gross take out, a few training lessons that Felicity convinced him to give, and she even taught him some basic hacking skills. They talked about their pasts and childhoods, although Felicity always kept her stories to MIT, and made him wonder why she never went further back. Now he knew what she had kept to herself, but still didn't know why.

"You weren't supposed to see any of this." She whispered with her eyes downcast.

"What's _this_?" Oliver asked in confusion, his eyes furrowed.

"This," Felicity gestured to the parking lot with sadness shading her tone. "My life before…it's too much."

"Who is it too much for?" Oliver asked in challenge. "Because I can tell you that my life is too much and you seem to handle it just fine."

"That's different," She volleyed back.

"How?" He asked, not moving from his stance in front of the car door. "How is this any different?"

"It just is, ok?" She asked, although her tone left no room for argument. She should have known that that had never stopped him before.

"I don't buy it," He found her eye line and held her gaze. "The Felicity I know wouldn't be scared for me to meet her mother."

"Well maybe you don't know me as well as you thought you did." She sighed in defeat. "You don't get it because now you'll all look at me different. I left all of this behind, and if I ever told you any of this it was supposed to be on my terms and in my way. Now you'll see all of this and you'll meet her-"

"Hey," She froze as he did the thing where he put his hand on her shoulder ever so gently. She loved and hated when he did the thing. When he did it she couldn't focus or breathe, let alone form an argument. "Why would I look at you any differently? You're my girl." He let the corner of his lips curve into a smile. "You've seen some of the darkest parts of my past. Do you look at me any differently because of it?"

"No, but-"

"Felicity, there is nothing that you could do, past, present, or future that would make me…" He clenched his jaw. "Care…for you any less." It wasn't the right time to say it, to make it known…he could wait.

"Are you sure?" She asked, but held a teasing lit to her voice. "Because there are some dark parts here."

Oliver gave her a full smile and squeezed her shoulder.

"I'm not going anywhere."

**AN: Thank you all so much for continuing to read and review this story. I was so nervous when I originally posted this and you've all really helped keep me going when I feel self-conscious about a chapter. Lately I have been having a difficult time writing the chapters cohesive-ly, so I am asking if anyone would be interested to help beta. I just want to make sure that you all are getting great chapters!**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: This chapter is as good as it is in large part to JamesRamsey, my amazing beta, who put in a lot of hard work editing this chapter and helping me organize my thoughts! Thank you! You're amazing!**

**Thank you for taking the time to read, review, fave, and follow this story. You are all amazing! Your support really helps me write and shows just how much people enjoy this story. Thank you!**

**Chapter 7**

"So anything I should know before we go in there?" Oliver asked as they sat in the car, neither having dared to break the silence. "I mean besides what Roy was saying."

Felicity let out a breath and turned to look at the house in front of her.

"Nope, Roy pretty much summed it up." He knew she was discouraged. She hadn't said a word since they left the motel and that worried him. Oliver wasn't used to being near Felicity without her talking about something.

"You sure that's it?" He asked as he kept his gazed fixed on her profile.

"Yep," She popped her 'p' before taking a deep breath.

He noted that she had yet to reach for the door handle so he made no move either. He was willing to wait with her as long as she needed. He was even willing to wait it out in silence, however disconcerting it was. From the day they met, Oliver knew that Felicity was special.

She always seemed to know when he was telling a lie but didn't call him out on it. She even took the fact that he told her the truth while bleeding out in the backseat of her car very well. Felicity wasn't afraid to challenge him and he loved that about her. Felicity had a kind heart and was able to see the good in a person, which was a trait that he had lost during his years on the island. Oliver was continually amazed at how brave she was – the only person in their little team without years of training or a reason to fight besides it being the right thing. To him, Felicity was amazing.

"I can go in alone you know," she told him without turning her head to look at him.

"You really don't want me to meet your mother, do you?" Oliver joked in an effort to lighten the mood.

Felicity turned and raised her eyebrows in challenge. "Do you really want to meet my mother?"

"Well I think after all this time it would be nice to meet your mom and see childhood photos of little Felicity," he joked but when he saw it was having no effect he sobered. "Come on, we talked about this."

"Yeah, but I just keep thinking about how awful I was about … your mom." She ended in a whisper.

Oliver wasn't sure how to respond. Sure his mother and Felicity weren't best friends but Felicity never once said anything about his mother that wasn't true. No matter what his mother did, Felicity had been fair in her judgment. Felicity even showed up to his mother's funeral when Moira had been nothing but hostile towards her. Granted their history wasn't the best, but he never doubted that both women cared for him.

"Your mom, no matter what she did in her life, I mean mass homicide is pretty drastic although she was kind of coerced into that, and she could be _really_ scary…" Felicity trailed off at the expectant look on Oliver's face. "Your mom loved you and Thea … more than her own life. I'm pretty sure my mom would sell me for a decent high right about now." Felicity finished with her eyes downcast.

Felicity was right, about his mother at least. Moira's final act had proven infinitely just how much she loved her children, and put into action what she had assured them all their lives. She died knowing her kids knew without a doubt that her love for them was real when so many things about their relationships had been lies and half-truths. To hear Felicity speak in such a way that belittled the love her mother must have for her made him ache.

This was Felicity. Strong, smart, beautiful, amazing Felicity. How could anyone not love her? She never let him give up and stuck by his side through everything. She jumped out of an airplane to bring him home, trusted him with her life so many times, and never once left him. Oliver admired her for that courage.

"I think sitting in this car all night isn't going to find us answers," he murmured as he reached over to gently squeeze her shoulder. "How about we go up to the door and just try?"

Felicity seemed to consider his offer before nodding her head and moving to unbuckle her seatbelt.

"Just remember that I warned you," she muttered as they exited the car.

"I'll take that into consideration." He gave her a smile over the hood of the car.

He didn't know what to expect on the other side of the front door but he knew he could at least provide Felicity with support. She had been supporting him since they first met and now it was his turn to show her that he was strong enough to help her. Ever since Slade's take down, he and Felicity had been growing closer. While Roy had secured the spot on Felicity's couch, Oliver had been working to prove to himself, and Felicity, that he could have a life outside of being the Arrow.

* * *

The first three months after the battle were filled with the massive cleanup for all areas of the city as well as recovery for those injured in the attacks. Detective Lance had been admitted to the hospital with severe internal injuries but had pulled through after a twelve hour surgery, three months in the hospital and then a physical rehabilitation center. Laurel had taken the interim position of District Attorney while sitting in a hospital waiting room as the doctors worked on her father, with Oliver and Felicity the only witnesses to the call.

Oliver believed that day in the hospital was when Laurel began to look at Felicity differently. The two women never really spoke outside of a few instances, and here Felicity was offering to get Laurel food while she waited, or asking if she needed anything.

Soon after, Laurel and Felicity began going to self-defense classes together or going for coffee, much to Roy's displeasure. At first Oliver found it a bit disconcerting as well, but after seeing Felicity come into the lair one night with a smile and her eyes seemingly glued to her phone he brought up the new change in her demeanor.

"I'm just texting Laurel." Felicity responded to his question about her new habit of glancing at her phone. "There's a wine tasting at the art museum tomorrow night that we're going to try to go to."

Oliver heard Roy's scoff on the other side of the training mats followed quickly by the sound of Diggle knocking Roy off his feet with a bo staff.

"Since when are you and Laurel friends?" Oliver asked with arms folded across his chest.

Felicity smirked and cocked her head to the side.

"Since when is it an issue for me to have friends outside of you three?" Felicity asked in a teasing tone. "Or is it because my choice of friends includes your ex-girlfriend?"

"It's not." Oliver tried to defend himself as he heard Roy and Diggle halt their movements. "And it's just that you and Laurel don't really have much in common."

"Oh please, if there were ever two people that had something in common it would be them, the ex and the missus," Roy snorted.

Oliver turned to give Roy a frustrated glare, catching Diggle holding back his own chuckle, before returning to Felicity who seemed to struggle with her composure as well.

"I only asked because you and Laurel never really talked." Oliver told her after taking a breath.

Felicity shrugged. "She appreciated that I was there with her when her father was in the hospital. Last year's drug and alcohol debacle put her on the outs with a lot of her friends, and I don't have a lot of female friends. So we bonded. It's also nice to have a life outside of … here." She gestured aimlessly to their surroundings.

Oliver nodded while Roy and Diggle resumed their actions on the training mat. Felicity gave him one more smile before turning back to her computers. So she wanted a life outside of here, the lair, the mission.

He didn't blame her. How could he? Having a life outside of being the Arrow was becoming a secret desire of his, but if anyone found out who he was then his friends would be at risk – Felicity would be in danger. If the past year confronting Slade had been any indication of what the fallout would look like then the people in Oliver's life would be better off this way.

Still he couldn't help himself from wanting it. Wanting, _her_.

Later that night when he got back to his new, unfurnished apartment only two blocks south of Diggle's, he pulled up the art museum's website and looked into the event. It was a charity wine tasting for the re-construction efforts—something the Queen name should be associated with if he wanted help getting the company back. This would be good publicity.

He talked it over with Walter, who had supplied sage advice during the past three months of working to get his company back. Walter had become a trusted advisor in the world of business and was immediately on board with the idea. Oliver found himself trusting people in a way that had been nearly impossible when he first returned from the island.

When he first returned to Starling City he had been so focused on the list and righting his father's wrongs. Letting people in had not been a luxury that the new Oliver wanted or could afford. The person that he had become over the course of those five years away was not someone who wanted or needed anyone else's help. He knew in his gut that he could save the city on his own.

At least that's what he thought at the time. First, he had let Diggle in on the truth and then he found himself going back to the same IT specialist multiple times. Dig and Felicity were the first two people that he had in all honesty let into his life after he came home. There were too many secrets among the Queen family, too much bad blood with the Lance family, and as much as he loved Tommy he couldn't connect with the person he had become. They had all expected him to be the same belligerent party boy he had been when he got on that yacht – Ollie.

Felicity and Diggle challenged him and came to accept him as the person he was in the now. They were the ones responsible for helping to bring back the humanity he had lost when he was stranded on Lian Yu. He wanted to prove to them he wasn't a lost cause and that their faith was placed in the right person. Oliver wanted to show them that he could leave the island, and those subsequent years, behind him and grow into a new person – a better person. Oliver wanted to be the person _they_ saw when they looked at him.

Oliver planned to surprise Felicity at the event, give her his patented Oliver Queen (former) billionaire smile while others looked on before they snuck away from the crowd. He wanted to give her a normal night where they could discuss some of the local artists, laugh at the way the rich of Starling City still paraded around like peacocks, and sip on red wine that would forever remind them of this night. He also had hoped to leave Diggle at home. Oliver wasn't worth much these days lowering the chances that anyone would want to harm or kidnap _the_ Oliver Queen for ransom. But Diggle _insisted_ they keep up appearances.

When the two men walked into the museum Oliver spotted her straight away. Felicity stood off to the side, laughing into her wine glass, while Laurel looked to be explaining something about the painting before them. She looked at ease—comfortable in her navy, cocktail-length dress with electric blue nails that he could see clear across the room. She wasn't wearing her glasses and her hair was in loose curls, similar to the night they caught the Dodger.

As Oliver stared at her from the main entrance he was very aware of the fact that she took his breath away, literally. Felicity was always beautiful, but to see her outside of work or the lair, happy with friends and not in danger, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he wanted this. He wanted to have a normal life so he could take her to these events, sit at home on a Friday night watching bad television while she tried to re-educate him on all that he missed, making her late for work because he just couldn't get enough of her … he wanted it all.

* * *

Standing in front of her mother's house now, he wondered if they would ever have that "normal" life. This had been the most normal thing they had done in months and it was still, as Felicity said, complicated and messy. It was a dangerous situation and for once had nothing to do with the Arrow. Would they ever have a normal?

"Hey, you can wait in the car, you know?" Felicity nudged his shoulder as it was his turn to stop and stare at the house in front of them. "You don't have to go in and meet her."

"I told you." He turned to look her in the eye, putting his earlier thoughts about a normal life for the two of them into that one look. "I'm not going anywhere."

Felicity gave an un-lady like snort. "Your funeral." She muttered as they began their walk up the path.

Oliver found himself reaching down to take hold of her in a show of support.

He kept hold of her much smaller hand clasped in his own rough one while they waited for Vivienne Smoak to answer the door. He assumed she didn't mind this sudden act of care as she didn't say otherwise and didn't fight to remove it from his grasp. It was just one more example of how much their relationship had evolved.

Felicity could hear the sounds of someone on the other side of the door fumbling through the house. While she and Roy had been in there earlier she noticed that her mother had gotten messier over the years, or maybe it was Felicity that had kept the house clean, she wasn't sure. Either way it hadn't stopped Felicity from trying to clean the kitchen up while she had been getting them all water.

Felicity glanced up at Oliver out of the corner of her eye. When he had grabbed her hand she hadn't really given it a second thought. It wasn't like they usually held hands, but it still felt normal when he had done it. She was used to being the one to initiate the occasional hugs after high intensity moments, or taking hold of his hand when he was in need of comfort. This was new. What made it feel a little less normal, was that he hadn't let go. He continued to hold her hand as they walked up the path and while they waited for her mother to answer the door.

She wasn't stupid. She knew that for the past five months they had been growing closer to each other. It started with re-locating the lair and then continued while she helped him look for Thea. They spent more time together just the two of them. Roy had been a loose cannon when they first returned from Lian Yu, before she was able to reach him. Diggle had been finding more reasons to turn in early so that he could spend time with Lyla, rightfully so. That often left the two of them alone.

They frequently shared stories about college, her with MIT and him with … a lot of them. She felt that he knew her better than Roy and Diggle ever could. Sure Roy knew what cereal she stockpiled in the cabinets and what TV shows she watched when she was stressed out after a long day of vigilante/hero crime fighting, but Oliver knew how to stop her from going on a tangent with just a touch.

Diggle knew how she liked her coffee, but Oliver knew when she was too tired to function without it.

Felicity wasn't even sure if Oliver was aware of how well he knew her.

"Felicity?" Her mother's voice broke her from her thoughts of Oliver, causing her to squeeze his hand a little tighter as Vivienne's eyes raked over Felicity, Oliver, and their joined hands. "And another man?"

Felicity glanced at Oliver before looking back at her mother.

"If I didn't know any better I'd say you were following in my footsteps." Vivienne stood in the door way with a smug smirk on her face and a lowball glass of what Felicity assumed was Vodka in her hand.

"You never brought men home," Felicity stated in confusion as she chose to ignore the not so subtle dig.

Vivienne shrugged her shoulders before crossing her arms over her chest. Felicity could feel Oliver tense beside her. "Just because I didn't bring them home didn't mean that there were none."

Felicity held back a shudder as Oliver gave her hand a comforting squeeze.

"So, who is this one?" Vivienne let out a sigh as her eyes scanned Oliver, standing tense and at alert beside her daughter.

"This is Oliver, my friend," Felicity announced. "Can we come in?"

Vivienne shrugged her shoulders before moving from the doorway to let them in. Felicity gradually released Oliver's hand as she followed her mother into the house. It looked even worse than the last time she was here. There was still shattered glass on the living room carpet from where the bullets came through the now empty space where the window used to be. Felicity also saw piles of clothes on the couch as well as a nearly empty bottle of Vodka.

"What do you want now?" Vivienne bit out, although Felicity heard the underlying fear in her tone.

"We came to get more information on Johnnie so we could help," Felicity said in frustration. "I want to help you."

Oliver moved to stand beside Felicity, seemingly not trusting the woman in front of him or the house itself to leave her too far from his protective reach.

"You want to help _me_?" Vivienne let out a mocking laugh, taking two steps forward so she was only a foot away from her daughter.

That close Felicity could see the sadness and fear in her mother's eyes that she hadn't seen earlier. It was the kind that formed over years of abandonment issues and resentments.

Vivienne shook her head as if the idea was funny. "Go home. Get as far away from here as you can."

"Mom …" Felicity felt the urge to stomp her foot as her mother once again tried to turn her away, but instead brought a hand to her forehead where she felt a subtle throb begin to form.

"Felicity Meghan Smoak you are supposed to be God damned genius! So get out!" Vivienne threw her arms up in frustration before turning to run a hand through her hair. "Why won't you leave? Why won't you listen to me? Are you really that stupid?"

"She's here to help you because you asked her to come," Oliver gritted out between clenched teeth. "You are her mother and you asked for her help. If you knew anything about your daughter you would know she doesn't leave anyone behind, no matter how they treat her."

Felicity turned to glance his way. She hadn't expected him to speak up during their meeting with her mother. Felicity knew he meant the words, they were partners, but she also knew not to read too much into it.

"So this is the boyfriend. I have to admit I like him a whole lot better than Pretty Boy earlier." A Cheshire cat style grin was slowly forming on Vivienne's face as she moved to reach for the nearly empty bottle of Vodka.

Felicity rolled her eyes at her mother. "Oliver is not my boyfriend." Felicity sensed him shift on his feet as she said the words.

"Oh, _sweetie_," Vivienne cooed while she poured the remaining liquid into her glass. "That's what they all say."

"We came for information." Oliver was all business, but Felicity could see that he was struggling to remain calm. "Who is this Johnnie guy, and what's the name of his casino?"

Vivienne shook her head before turning to the window that overlooked the street. Felicity didn't understand why her mother was being so stubborn. She called her here to help her and now she either kept trying to get her to leave or wouldn't say anything. Felicity knew her mother could be difficult but she was entering a whole new level. For all of Vivienne's faults growing up, she had never treated Felicity like this.

"Mom … please," Felicity tried as she took a step towards her.

Felicity watched as her mother's smug smile began to droop at the edges and her eyes cleared of their spite.

"Did you know that when you were little you used to take apart the appliances in the house just so that you could put them back together?" Vivienne spoke softly without looking at either guest. "When I would find you, I would get so upset that I would send you to your room as punishment." Felicity nodded at the memory. "You were so amazed at how things worked, so curious because you hated the mystery of it."

"I'm still like that, mom." Felicity moved to stand beside her mother while using a calming tone.

"You shouldn't be." Vivienne turned to face her daughter, a frown on her face and a real sadness in her eyes. For the first time since Felicity got to Vegas she was finally seeing the mother that she had grown up with. "That curiosity is going to get you killed."

"Then why did you call me here?" Felicity asked in frustration. She felt like all they were going were going around in circles.

Vivienne shook her head again, as if the slight lucidity she was feeling was beginning to wear off.

"Johnnie doesn't have a last name, at least none that stay the same." She closed her eyes as she spoke and began to pick at her pant leg with trembling fingers. It was as if she was searching for the answers that had been clouded by the years of drug abuse. "The casino is north of downtown, on Owens. It's heavily armed and only people who know where it is can get in. The entrance is hidden, it's a false door with a security camera that tells the guard on duty who you are."

Vivienne turned from her spot at the window and once again moved to the couch. Felicity watched as her mother began moving the piles of clothes around and searching the pockets she came across.

"How does the guard know who you are?" Oliver stepped forward when Felicity didn't respond. "Is there a code we need to know?"

Vivienne shook her head again without looking up. "No, it's a bracelet that all the members wear. I have one in my bedroom." Vivienne jerked her head in the direction of her bedroom but didn't stop searching.

Felicity turned to look at Oliver who nodded in agreement - they could do this like the other casino job. The plan was starting to form.

"I'll text Dig and Roy," Oliver told her as he raised his cell phone to show her.

"Mom, can we use the bracelet?" Felicity asked her mother.

She wasn't sure where this sudden compliance came from, but if they were going to help Vivienne then Felicity needed to get as much cooperation as she could now while she was still willing.

"It's in my room," Vivienne told her with a huff as she sat on the couch. Whatever she had been searching for in the clothes wasn't there. "In the jewelry box on the night stand. It looks like a gold semi-circle; it's the only gold jewelry I have. We all get them when we start working but they're all the same."

Felicity reached out to squeeze her mother's hand, gaining her a sad smile in return. Vivienne then turned away while bringing her hand up to rub her weary face, leaving Felicity to get the bracelet.

"Felicity …" Her mother called out from the couch, causing Felicity to turn and Oliver to raise his head. "Never mind," she said as she furrowed her brow and shook her head almost as if she were conflicted.

Felicity raised her eyebrows to show her confusion before giving Oliver a nod of approval, signaling that she was ok while he sent the message to John. The house wasn't that large, but Felicity still had to walk down a carpeted hallway to get to her mother's room. The box in question was in plain view, right on the bedside table, like her mother said. She let out a breath in relief; this was finally all coming together.

Felicity had barely stepped into the room when she noticed the window in her mother's room, which did not have any bars likely due to its height from the ground, was open. Ever since Slade had come to Starling City she had found herself becoming more aware of her surroundings, and while an open window wouldn't normally alarm her especially as she was in someone else's house, this time it did.

Before she could turn to leave the room, Felicity found two thick arms encircling her, effectively covering her mouth and securing her arms tightly to her sides. The swell of panic rose in her chest as she began to jerk her body in an effort to wiggle out of the stranger's grasp while trying to give out a muffled scream to alert Oliver in the other room.

As the man restraining her pushed them further into the room, kicking the door shut behind them she knew it couldn't have been Oliver for two reasons. Reason number one was Oliver wouldn't intentionally scare her—he would give her a clue it was him. And reason number two was she knew Oliver's arms, and in an unashamed they-were-always-out-in-the-open kind of way, she was very familiar with them.

Felicity continued to struggle with a new attempt at throwing her head backwards in hopes of hitting her captor, just like Diggle taught her. She didn't hit anything but air as she felt him move his own head to the side missing her attempt at freedom. The arm wrapped around her arms and waist seemed to only get tighter as she struggled. Without thinking she worked her mouth enough to grasp the rough skin covering her mouth and bit down hard. Sure she only got the palm of the man's hand, but it was enough for him to yelp in surprise and loosen his hold.

Those few seconds when the man behind her was recovering from his shock was enough for her to reclaim her senses and remember the training that Oliver and Diggle had been putting her through almost relentlessly for the past two years. Stomping her foot on her opponent's foot caused him to shift his weight and loosen his hold even further.

With strength she didn't believe she would really have in a fight, as she always assumed that Oliver and Diggle went a little easy on her, she managed to flip her opponent over her back. The man landed in front of her with a thud, taking her with him.

The movement was enough to get herself free from his hold and allowed her to begin to crawl away from him and towards the door. She didn't make it far when it was flung open, hitting the wall with a loud bang.

_That was sure to crack the drywall_, which she knew was an odd thing for her to be thinking at the moment.

Oliver was like a propelled force, entering the room with only a slight glance in Felicity's direction. The man who had grabbed her was pushed up against the wall in a matter of seconds while she moved out of the way of the scuffle.

Now that she was in front of the man she noted he was taller than Oliver and definitely more muscular. He wasn't wearing a mask which led her to believe that his intentions hadn't been simply to grab her mother's costume jewelry and head to the pawn shop. While he was bigger, Oliver was demonstrating his own strength and skill as he jabbed his fist into the man's stomach, causing him to double over. But he didn't stay down long. Using his advantage, he rushed at Oliver's midsection with enough force to pin him to the wall.

Without thinking, Felicity reached for the item closest to her. Yanking hard on the lamp's cord she rushed over to where the man delivered another punch to Oliver's abdomen. The lamp shattered as Felicity threw it at close range to the back of the man's head, the light socket making a slight 'thud' as it hit his skull.

_It would have been too good to be true for that to have done any damage_, Felicity thought to herself as the man turned his head to glance in her direction. He looked annoyed, but not overly bothered. It was however a good enough distraction for Oliver to use his own weight to shove the man off of him and across the room once more. Felicity jumped back out of the way so that she stumbled over the corner of her mother's bed and in front of the open doorway.

Just as Oliver was about to charge the man in front of him they heard three gun shots coming from the hallway. Oliver had enough time to calculate Felicity's position as being in prime range before he threw himself in her direction-knocking her off her feet and to the floor.

While Oliver was heavier than Roy, who performed the same action only hours earlier, Felicity didn't feel the weight. She looked up to see Oliver tense above her with all his weight on his knees and his elbows, effectively caging her underneath him protectively. The deep breaths he was taking caused his abdomen to brush lightly against her own as she waited for the next hit to come.

Oliver lifted his head first and then his upper body to get a clear view of the room. His mouth turned into a deeper frown while his brows lifted in confusion. She pushed herself into a sitting position, with his legs still straddling her hips, and found what had him perplexed. The room was empty.


	8. Chapter 8

_AN: I am so sorry for being gone from this story for so long. I love this story but the past six weeks have been so chaotic and getting anything written down was a struggle. I'm not happy at all with this chapter and I feel like it is mostly a filler chapter. _

_I'm not sure which spelling is used for John when Lyla calls him Johnny, but for the purpose of this story it will be different from the other Johnnie so there is less confusion. Thank you for sticking around and reading this chapter. Chapter 9 will pick back up in speed again._

_Constructive feedback is always welcome. _

**Chapter 8**

"What the hell was that?" Felicity asked as Oliver held a hand out to help her to her feet. She took a minute to consider the now empty room and take stock of the damage. "Are you ok?" Felicity turned her gaze to Oliver who had yet to speak since pinning her to the floor.

The whole incident had happened in such quick succession that Felicity almost couldn't believe it had happened. Granted Oliver had done more of the fighting with Felicity only playing the part of the distraction. It was not the first time Felicity had hit someone over the head in order to protect Oliver, but she had a hard time grasping that the last eight hours had happened.

When Felicity would consider visiting her mother - if Vivienne ever returned Felicity's attempts at contact - she never imagined drive by shootings or men jumping her when she walked into a room.

"They're gone," Oliver murmured as he took in the open window with a hint of suspicion in his voice. "I'm ok, are you alright?" His voice became gentle as his eyes met hers.

Felicity was nervous of what she would find under his gaze so she averted her eyes and raised her hands to run them through her hair. They had been getting closer lately, that much was obvious, and the prospect of them crossing a line scared Felicity. She had come to depend on Oliver, and Roy and Dig, in a way she hadn't depended on anyone since college. Now all three of them were seeing parts of Felicity that they hadn't before and it made her feel vulnerable.

Oliver reached out and once again clasped her shaking hand in his own. She gave him a gentle squeeze and a reassuring smile while nodding a 'yes' to his earlier question. Oliver made an attempt to return her smile, but winced when he felt a pull in his cheek muscles.

"You're hurt, Oliver," She whispered as she let her hand drift to cup his tender cheek where the other guy got one good punch in. "Thank you," Felicity trailed off Oliver raised his other hand to brush her hair out of her face "Your hand to hand combat skills are definitely just as good as your arrow-ing."

Oliver chuckled in return. "Arrow-ing?" he asked with a wince and a grin.

Felicity shrugged and returned his smile, feeling her shoulder burn at the movement. "I've just been through a trauma … I'm allowed to make up words."

Felicity observed that Oliver now had a bruise blossoming beneath his right eye and was standing so that his weight was distributed to his left leg. It was a subtle change in his stance, really, but Felicity had seen him come back from a fight often enough to understand Oliver's unspoken physical pain. When Oliver would come back to the lair after a night out she didn't realize she had even taken stock of his injuries, but this time she felt responsible.

"You should sit down, you're standing weird," she urged while guiding him towards the now disheveled bed. "And I should get you some ice for that bruise, or maybe a steak … you always see characters in TV shows and movies with big steaks on their cheeks –"

"Hey," Oliver reached forward to take both her hands in his before pulling her gently to his side. "I'm ok."

She could tell that he wasn't fine even after he enunciated his 'ok' but she knew from experience that he would deny any pain. Oliver seemed to do that often … especially after he saved her life.

"This was my fault," Felicity choked out. "You're hurt and it is because of-"

"Don't say you," Oliver cautioned her as his hands began to drift up to her shoulders. The gentle way he squeezed her right shoulder – the uninjured one – made a slight shiver race up her spine, but she pushed that feeling out of her head … for now.

"None of this is because of you." Oliver murmured as his eyes met hers – a small tinge of purple beneath his eye was barely visible.

Felicity on the other hand was almost unscathed except for a sore shoulder, from where she hit the carpeted floor. She knew that it was a mere brush burn, nothing to worry about, and that the push to the floor was Oliver saving her life, again.

She even tried to push away the slight escalation of heat she had felt while his stomach had brushed against her own while they had been on the floor. His mouth had only been centimeters from her ear as hovered above her. He had only saved her life. Nothing romantic about that -not that she _wanted_ to think of Oliver in a romantic way, or that she did. Nope, they were just good friends that happened to face a fair amount of life or death situations.

"I…" Felicity trailed off as she looked around the room, noting the cracked dry wall that she knew her mother would make her pay for -

"Oh my … my mom!" Felicity jumped at the realization that she forgot about her mother.

Felicity broke her gaze from Oliver's, feeling a pang of loss as she did, before turning to sprint down the hallway. While the walk had felt shorter when she was moving towards the bedroom earlier in her haste to reach the coveted bracelet that would get them into the casino, it now seemed to stretch out before her.

There had been someone with a gun in the living room … in the room with her mother. They had shot the gun at Felicity and Oliver, but that didn't mean that her mother wasn't a potential target. The guilt nearly overwhelmed Felicity as she realized that she forgot about her own mother.

"Mom!" Felicity pushed further ahead of Oliver but still felt his presence behind her. "Mom!?" she called out as she entered the living room.

Oliver managed to gain speed, and not even two seconds after Felicity crossed the threshold into the living room, he had pushed her behind him. Oliver tried to squash the terror in the pit of his stomach at the possibility that the gunman was still in the room.

The thought of not getting to Felicity in time had only amplified when he had heard the whispers of a struggle when she had left him in the living room with her mother only moments earlier.

His fears, however, were unfounded as the living room which he had been in with Vivienne Smoak only a few minutes before was now empty. There was no sign of a struggle aside from the upturned tumbler of vodka that Vivienne had been holding when they got to the house. Everything was in its rightful place – exactly how it was when they left the room. The only difference was that now Felicity's mother wasn't there.

"Oliver … where did she go?!" Felicity cried out in fear and frustration. "She was just here?"

* * *

"_I'm sorry, Johnny, but my hands are tied._" Diggle could hear the heavy regret in Lyla's voice. "_If you had more information I might be able to find something, but from what I'm seeing, this guy doesn't even exist._"

"You're sure?" Diggle pressed as he brought a hand to his forehead in frustration. "What about the information we gave you about the neighborhood the casino is in?"

Oliver had just hung up the phone with him after providing all the information that Vivienne had given them when Diggle called Lyla. Diggle and Roy weren't having good luck locating any helpful information even with the new clues that Vivienne had provided.

Sure Roy had found the three nearest "underground casinos" but all were legal and all located underground. Diggle was very impressed with Roy's initiative and his willingness to help Felicity. The young man had certainly come a long way from his days following after Oliver in the shadows.

"Hey," Roy waved from his spot at the desk where Felicity's tablet was propped against the faux cast iron desk lamp. "Ask her to try criminals known for transporting narcotics in and out of Mexico using women as carriers, within a fifty mile radius of Nevada."

Diggle did a double take before he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion at Roy's tip. Felicity had left out the drug mule part of their story when they were telling him and Oliver earlier. Withholding information was something he was most certainly going to be speaking with both of them about once they got out of this mess.

"Why fifty?" Diggle asked with a hand over the receiver.

Roy shrugged and turned his eyes back to the tablet. "I'm just ball-parking."

"Lyla," John started without taking his eyes off of Roy.

"_I heard Roy_," she told him as he heard the sounds of her typing on her computer. "_You do realize that Waller could have me fired for the amount of work I'm doing for you boys today?_" While she sounded serious he could hear the hint of a smile in her voice.

Diggle moved to sit on the bed as he let out a small laugh of his own. "Waller is too interested in getting Oliver to work for A.R.G.U.S. to fire you…plus you're pregnant." He smiled at his words while not fully believing them. It had been five months and he still wasn't used to the fact that Lyla was carrying his child. "Can you imagine a government organization firing a pregnant woman? Waller is smart enough to avoid a scandal."

"_Maybe so, but I would prefer not to piss her off,_" he heard Lyla chuckle on the other end of the phone. "_Well, this is a little more interesting, but still not enough to go on_."

Diggle straightened his form causing Roy to cast a glance in his direction. "What is it?" Diggle asked.

"_The information you gave me is better_," Lyla began but trailed off, he assumed, to read the information in front of her. "_There are a few names that are coming up but there is one player in the Las Vegas area that is setting off some red flags. He or she has a reach almost all over Nevada and even some in large cities in nearby states. The FBI has been investigating the past three months, and it looked like they had been contacted by someone within the organization, but they don't have enough information to form a case or to name anyone as a suspect_."

"Well we know that the person is a he, Felicity's mother told us that much," Diggle could feel a weight being lifted at this new information. If the FBI was already involved they there was a chance that they could convince Felicity's mother to go to them.

He heard Lyla let out a disappointed huff on the other end of the receiver. "What was that noise for?"

"_Johnny, how well do you really know this woman? I mean Felicity is her daughter and she hasn't spoken to her in five years_. _Isn't that a bit suspicious to you?"_ Lyla's voice came out as soft as a whisper. "_I'm just saying that you need to be smarter about this and remove Felicity from the situation._"

"You think I'm not being objective?"

"_I think that if Felicity wasn't involved you wouldn't be in Las Vegas placing yourself in danger because a woman who _none_ of your trust told you so … Besides, you don't even know if this is the same person. The man you're after may just be a common drug dealer looking to get his start_."

Diggle glanced over at Roy before moving to the other side of the bed. "Well that doesn't sound like you, what is it?"

He could hear her frustration as she let out a sigh. "_The person in the report, the person that the FBI is looking for … The FBI has linked several … bodies to the case_."

"That's even more of a reason to get this over as soon as we can." He noticed Roy move from the desk to the bathroom to give Diggle some privacy. "We have gone up against people even more dangerous than this …"

"_And you haven't been a father before_," Lyla cut him off. "_I love Felicity, and Oliver and Roy … But you and this baby are my family."_ He could hear the tears in her voice as she spoke and he felt his throat grow thick. Everything that Lyla was saying was true – He was about to become a father, Vivienne did make him wary, and there was no real proof that this man Lyla found was the same man that was after Felicity's mother. "_Can't you just tranq. Felicity and drag her back here?_"

Diggle let out a small laugh at her joke as he ran a hand over his face.

"I think you and I both know Felicity Smoak well enough to know that doing that would cause us more damage than the killer drug dealer."

He could hear a low chuckle over the other end of the phone. "_I guess so … Just be careful_."

Even though Lyla couldn't see him, Diggle nodded in agreement. "I promise."

Diggle hung up the phone with an exhale – he would come home to Lyla and the baby, no matter what.

"Hey," he heard Roy as the young man poked his head out of the bathroom. "Everything alright with the missus?"

Diggle schooled his expression at Roy's joke before glancing back at his cell phone. Lyla was right, the information they now had didn't mean this was the person they were looking for. It could all just be a dead end lead.

"Yeah," Diggle told him as he tossed the phone with a flick of his wrist and caught it quickly. "She just made some good points about Vivienne and this whole thing."

He caught Roy roll his eyes before he sat at the desk he had been at before the phone call. "I don't trust her," Roy muttered as he continued to work on the tablet.

"That much has been obvious," Diggle dead panned with his hands on his hips.

"Oh man, I thought I was hiding it well," Roy bit out with a sarcastic twinge in his voice. "It doesn't matter anyway … I'm doing this for Felicity."

Diggle nodded his agreement as he gave Roy one more thoughtful look before his phone began to ring in his hand. Diggle glanced down to see Oliver's name flash across the screen.

"Please tell me that is the boss and we can go home." Roy mumbled from his seat.

"Oliver?" Diggle answered with hope that this would soon be over, but found that hope disappear when Oliver replied.

"Vivienne's gone."


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: First of all I want to thank each and every one of you that read, followed, favorited, and reviewed the last chapter. I can't tell you how much reading your words or knowing that there are people out there that enjoy this story means to me and how much it helps me focus on writing. Also, a huge thank you to the ever patient James Ramsey, who has been awesome at keeping me on track! **

**Just as a side note for this story for those of you that are interested, I know spoilers are starting to come out for season 3, and obviously my story doesn't fit in with some of them, so this will probably be deviating from canon a bit.**

**Chapter 9**

Roy Harper had been a loner for as long as he could remember.

He had found out early on in life that other people just let you down so it was better to trust yourself instead of other people. His father ran off not long after he was born – if he had stuck around at all, that is – while his mother gave being a parent ten years before she sent Roy to Starling City to live with her older brother. _The two people who were genetically programmed to love you … left_, Roy would often think to himself when he was feeling nostalgic.

His uncle Mike was a good guy who seemed to have his life together. Mike lived in the Glades, worked as a custodian at Merlyn Global, and was a chronic bachelor. Mike gave Roy plenty of attention when he first came to live with him and even brought him to work once on 'take your kid to work day.' Mike would pick Roy up from school and would help him with his homework – struggling on most of the subjects, but Roy didn't mind.

Roy actually thought that things were going to work out for once and he would have a decent home life. Maybe he would even graduate high school and go to college.

Then Roy was caught stealing at the local bodega, but Uncle Mike was good friends with the owner so it wasn't reported. Uncle Mike had a lot of good friends who let Roy's 'youthful indiscretions' slide for two years before Roy's and Mike's apologies began to fall flat and Roy's attitude became sharp.

It was around that time that the neighborhood had begun to change, with more street crime and corruption taking up the ranks of what used to be a home to the working class. Roy began skipping school and just walking around the city proper. He would watch the high-powered men and women in suits come and go each day with, what Roy assumed was, little worry for anything.

They would pass him on the street, some sticking up their noses at the kid who was obviously from the Glades, while others paid him no mind at all.

When Roy would get home Mike would be beyond furious. The school obviously called Mike at work to ask after Roy, and Mike would have no idea where Roy was. Mike would leave work to come home and look for Roy – at least he did the first seven times – before finally going back to work. When Roy would come home, Mike would yell and ask Roy questions like 'is this really what you want your life to become?' and 'don't you see that you are wasting your potential?'

Roy would keep the same bored expression on his face before leaving the room, and Mike, to sneak out of his bedroom window and wander through the Glades. It was the same cycle every time.

One morning, when Roy was sixteen, he woke up to an empty apartment and a note on the kitchen table. Mike had gone out for bagels and when he returned they were going to "talk" about Roy's attitude. Roy shrugged it off before going back to sleep until Mike came home.

Two hours later Mike still had not returned.

Five hours later Roy was still sitting alone in the apartment with no sign of his uncle.

Roy found out the next morning that, while walking back to the apartment from the same bodega Roy had stolen from only two years earlier that Mike had been mugged and killed.

A sixteen year old Roy who spent his days listening to the older men who worked the streets had heard the horror stories of the foster system, and seeing as how his mother hadn't made contact with him the six years he had been living with his uncle, Roy was sure he was headed in that direction.

Packing up a small duffle bag with hoodies, t-shirts, jeans, and the necessary underwear and socks, Roy left the apartment an hour after the funeral was over. He was just crawling out of his bedroom window when members from Social Services were knocking on the front door.

Roy had seen his mother twice over the next few years before he met the bold, and sometimes crazy, Thea Queen. Each time his mother entered his life it was only for a day at most, during which Roy did his best to show her that he was fine on his own and that her 'help' wasn't needed. She took the hint, not that she needed one, and would go AWOL until the next time she would resurface.

People came in and out of life so often that Roy had begun to feel as though there was a revolving door somewhere that he wasn't aware of. Meeting Thea and becoming a part of Team Arrow had finally given him a sense of purpose. Felicity giving him a home and a job gave him a life and an unspoken promise that everything would get better.

Roy didn't like to make a big deal of Felicity giving him that chance. It felt all too familiar to the last time someone gave him hope and a home, his uncle. Mike was the only person who hadn't willingly walked out on Roy when he was at his worst. Roy never appreciated that when he was a kid, and he regretted that now. Roy began to wonder why he should deserve this chance when he wasted the opportunity that Mike had given him.

Some mornings when he was lying awake in bed, listening to Felicity fumble around in the kitchen in search of her coffee mug, he would think of how Mike had done the same thing for him all those years ago. While Mike had taken Roy in because he was his sister's son, he had loved Roy all the same. Mike never gave up on him even when Roy was an ungrateful jackass to him.

He was beginning to see that Felicity wasn't going to give up on him either. Over the course of the last few months that Roy had been working and living with Felicity he had seen her try and try again to reach him. She knew his favorite cereal, his favorite energy drink, and most importantly she was beginning to learn his expressions. While Oliver had 'angry face,' Roy had 'hiding his emotions behind snark' and 'pissed off but too proud to admit it.' Roy had to admit that Felicity knew him pretty well by the time the Vegas trip came up.

Felicity hadn't needed to take him in or give him a job and yet she did it anyway. While the main reason she was looking into Thea's disappearance was because of Oliver, Roy knew that part of her reasoning was to help the 'kid brother she brought in from the cold,' as she sometimes liked to call him. He saw how she liked to play off her kindness, how any praise would make her bite her lip and bring an involuntary red shine to her cheeks. Felicity didn't do nice things for people to get noticed. She did it because she was a good person, because she was Felicity.

After the team had returned to Starling City from Lian Yu, Roy had been in the process of cleaning the lair. Felicity did a, very visible, double take when she saw him with a broom in his hand and a garbage can beside him. The destruction was a lot worse in the light of day.

Diggle stood to the side as he took stock of the damage that had happened to their home base. It really was a lot to take in, and that was after Roy had spent three full days sweeping, scrubbing, and packing.

Oliver, however, stood beside Felicity with a solemn frown on his face as his eyes met Roy's. Roy didn't know how to tell Oliver about Thea, surely the man would be pissed – possibly at Roy. Roy was supposed to have protected her from all this, he was supposed to make sure that none of this – the blood, the danger, the cracked ceilings, deception, and manipulation – ever touched her. Roy failed.

It would take a few more days for the group to realize that no matter how much they cleaned, the lair was compromised.

* * *

"Oliver and Felicity should be back soon," Diggle murmured as Roy leaned back on the bed, careful of his abdomen that still ached after being grazed by the bullet from the drive by shooter earlier that day. "You sure you don't want me to check that?"

Roy looked up to see Diggle give the young man a pointed look.

"I'm fine," Roy shook his head before closing his eyes. "We should be worried about Felicity and Oliver."

Roy followed Diggle's footsteps as he heard him move from his spot by the window to the desk that sat opposite the bed Roy was laying on. The room was covered with this thick, almost shag like, carpet with a green tint to it that he was sure wasn't natural. It made Roy really _have_ to listen to hear Diggle move throughout the room with all his special forces training.

"And we will …" Diggle trailed off as he leaned against the desk with his arms folded in front of him. "But I can't worry about getting them patched up and you falling over at the same time."

Roy snorted in amusement at the older man. Even after telling him that the hospital took care of him and the wound would be fine, Diggle still hovered around him. It was as if Diggle was the mother hen of the group.

He always took care of them after their missions – with the exception of the times that Felicity took care of Oliver – and served as the voice of reason. Diggle made sure that they all had dinner when they were working late and made sure they got their caffeine in the morning when they had been up for too long.

Granted he usually made Roy go and get dinner and the coffee, but it was still Diggle who made sure that it happened.

"You know, I think the doctors and nurses at the hospital knew what they were doing when they patched me up – must have been those years of medical training I heard that they had. How many years do doctors need to go to school for again?" Roy tipped his head in thought.

"Alright, fine." Diggle brought up both hands in surrender. "I give – "

"Thank you." Roy nodded.

"But at the first sign of dizziness or a light headed sensation you let me know."

"Aye, aye captain." Roy mock saluted.

Roy chucked as Diggle turned to move back to the window as he muttered something about "too stubborn" under his breath.

"Rental car is back," Diggle said once he reached his spot.

"Can you see Oliver and Felicity?" Roy asked as he moved from his spot on the bed, holding his injured side as he went.

He caught Diggle give him a sidelong glance before rolling his eyes.

"They must have already started up to the room," Diggle noted.

"Did Oliver even say what happened?" Roy asked as he stood with Diggle by the window.

Diggle just shook his head before running a hand over his face. Roy empathized with his frustration. It seemed like ever since they had come to Las Vegas they had been getting injured, one after the other, in order to protect Felicity. It made Roy wonder what Vivienne was hiding that put her daughter in such danger.

Before Roy could go too far on his train of thought the door to the motel room opened to reveal Oliver and Felicity. Felicity appeared to be fine, with the exception of the pissed off, _don't mess with me_, face she now wore. Roy was grateful that at least she wasn't hurt, and let out a slow breath he felt himself hold once Diggle noticed their car.

Oliver on the other hand had a blossoming bruise forming below his eye and ice in his left hand. Oliver had been sparse on the details over the phone, only that they had been ambushed again, and Vivienne was gone. They did get the bracelet, so at least they had one small victory for the night.

"I see you stopped for ice." Diggle gestured to Oliver.

Oliver pursed his lips before turning to Felicity who folded her arms over her chest. Apparently the bruise was a sore spot for Felicity as well.

"What have you guys found so far?" Oliver continued as he entered the room. "We need to start forming a plan."

Roy watched as Diggle took his cue and sprang into action. "After taking the information from Lyla, and the information that you two gave us, we were able to narrow down our searches and found some likely information." Diggle began the conversation as if Felicity wasn't standing in the entrance way looking as though she had been kicked and Oliver didn't look like he had gone three rounds with a sledgehammer. "This Johnnie guy seems to travel around under multiple aliases, but always with the first name 'Johnnie,' – "

"Very Shining-esque," Felicity spoke up in a soft undertone as she moved to the bed nearest the window while Oliver moved to the desk chair.

Roy noticed Diggle give her a quick, sympathetic look before turning back to Oliver. Roy put his hands in his hoodie pockets as he noted the atmosphere of the room become blanketed in tension. Why wasn't anyone talking about Vivienne? Why wasn't Felicity pushing for them to find her?

"The alias he's assumed now is Jonathan Fields, pharmaceutical sales rep," Diggle announced as he picked up the tablet and began to scroll. "Fifteen years ago Jonathan Fields didn't exist – "

"Fifteen years is a long time to keep an alias," Oliver mused from the chair. "He must have been pretty pissed when someone started getting close to the truth."

"Judging from what we have on this guy, that would be a correct assumption," Diggle finished.

"You mean Vivienne." Roy spoke up while keeping his eyes on Felicity. "You mean he must have been pissed when Vivienne started getting close to the truth."

Felicity lowered both her hands to anchor her to the bed but didn't speak.

"Roy—" Oliver began in a warning tone but Roy wanted to know where the sudden ignorance was coming from. This entire trip had been about helping her mother, and now Felicity was the least enthused of the bunch to find real information.

"What aren't you two telling us?" Roy challenged, sensing Oliver stand from his seat. "What happened to Vivienne?"

"Roy—" This time it was Diggle warning him to stop.

"Felicity, where is your mother?" Roy took a step closer to his friend who refused to make eye contact. "Why don't you seem to care about anything we are talking about?"

"Hey," Roy felt Oliver place a hand on his shoulder and nudge him backwards – away from Felicity. "That's enough."

"Why?" Roy turned to face Oliver, ignoring the sting in his side. "Why aren't we talking about the person who brought us here in the first place? What happened that she's 'gone'? She's been a verifiable pain in all of our asses since we got here and now suddenly we are having a conversation that doesn't revolve around her or getting her out of danger. If she's gone then why the hell are we still—"

"She left with them," Felicity interrupted them as she jumped up from the bed. "She's gone because she left willingly."

Oliver brought a hand up to scrub his face while Diggle shifted his stance more to face Felicity who now stood at the foot of the bed. Roy had turned to face her but didn't speak. Felicity's tone told him to think twice about speaking.

"There was no sign of a struggle, no indication that she even tried to fight against the guys that attacked us, and no trace of blood which means she wasn't shot." Felicity deduced for them. "She left …"

Roy watched as she trailed off before wrapping her arms around her midsection and turning to the window. Oliver seemed to stare at her with apprehension filling his eyes while Diggle turned to glance at the tablet that had been left on the desk. Neither man willing to finish her sentence. Roy knew how much Oliver and Diggle loved Felicity, he loved her too, and to see her facing this apparent realization hurt each of them.

"She's been playing you," Roy finished softly.

He didn't expect, but he should have, Felicity to snap back around to face him with intensity in her eyes. He expected her to be sad and to start to cry, maybe need Oliver to hold her up because of finally admitting that her mother had duped her, but he didn't expect a burning anger.

Anger that was clearly directed at him.

"How could you possibly know that?" she charged. "Just because there was no sign of struggle, doesn't mean that she was a part of any of this … there was a gun and a very real threat."

Roy glanced at Oliver and realized why there was such tension when they entered the room – Oliver thought that Vivienne set them up too.

"You're serious," Roy stated as he turned to the other men in the room. "Please tell me you are not seriously going to let her talk herself around this right now?"

"I don't think—" Diggle began step in but Roy wasn't going to let them do this anymore. They have been ignoring all their gut instincts to try and help Felicity's mother when all they got in return was backlash.

"_She_ and _her_ is in the damn room Roy," Felicity snapped as she took a step towards him.

"Felicity, she's in on it," Roy spelled out slowly while not letting her anger faze him. "Your mother is setting you up and she probably has been ever since she called you this morning. She has been pulling you in with these ridiculous stories of drug trafficking and owing fifty thousand dollars to some homicidal maniac and then pushing you away each time you try to get through to her and help her. Now all of a sudden—when we are finally getting close to answers—she mysteriously disappears!"

"Roy—" Oliver jumped in, body tense and tone firm. Roy knew he was pushing it.

"How can you say that?" Felicity growled at him but it seemed to lack its earlier vigor. "What you are saying doesn't make sense. Why would my mother want me to come here to help her and then run away when I wanted to help?"

"Do you hear yourself? You're defending a woman who wouldn't speak to you for five years and then called you up out of the blue for help before turning around and putting you in not one but two dangerous situations. She's been giving you half of the information we needed the entire time and constantly changing her story on whether or not she actually wants you here.

"How can you still sit there with how smart you are supposed to be and not see what she is doing to you?"

"That's enough," Oliver interrupted and took a step in between Roy and Felicity.

Roy watched as Dig stood in silence beside him while Oliver stood in front of him, neither objecting to his assertions nor confirming their own doubts. He knew they felt the same way as he did – or at least he knew Diggle did – they just didn't want to say it to Felicity.

Roy saw the way her eyes lit up even the smallest bit when she thought her mother needed her. The prospect of having a loving family was foreign to both Roy and Felicity, and he knew how tempting it was to want it. For Felicity, in this moment, her mom was there. Granted Vivienne Smoak had been toying with Felicity since she got there, and there was a fair amount of resentment whenever the Smoak women were in the same room.

No matter what Felicity had been through with her mother, Roy knew that there was still a part of her deep down – a lost little kid, maybe – that wanted to have that relationship with their mom.

Roy took a deep breath as he saw Felicity fight to keep her face neutral, he knew he had pushed too far.

"Felicity, I'm—" Roy began but she wouldn't let him finish.

"I'm going to—" Felicity interrupted before she moved from her spot on the bed towards the bathroom.

Roy knew he should feel like scum, and part of him did, for shattering her fantasy. But he also knew that the Felicity he had grown to love wouldn't have tolerated this from any one of them. She would have called it like she saw it and brought them all back to reality. Maybe she would have done it a little more tactfully, but she wouldn't want to see them get played like Vivienne was playing her now.

"Now what?" Roy turned to look at Oliver and Diggle who both looked deep in thought.

"Well, I guess we wait for her to come out of the bathroom and then start working on a plan." Oliver spoke softly as he turned his gaze to the bathroom door.

While he knew where Roy was coming from, and agreed with him, Oliver didn't want to be right this time. When he was at Vivienne Smoak's house there had been a minute – a short moment of clarity – that had occurred between the two women. Up until the fight started Felicity had hope that her relationship with her mother wasn't as messed up as she once believed.

To have that taken from you to be replaced with a reality that brought pain and heartache was something Oliver was only too familiar with.

Learning the truth about Moira hadn't been easy for him. There were nights when he didn't believe his mother capable of what he had learned – partnering with Malcolm Merlyn, taking part in a plan to level the Glades, the deception behind Thea's true parentage – it was all too much sometimes.

When he came back to Starling City he knew that he was in for a battle to save his home. The list and his time spent working with Waller showed him that. Oliver never imagined how close to home his fight would take him. If it hadn't been for Diggle and Felicity – and Tommy too – Oliver would still be fighting for a misshapen form of justice and vengeance with no real moral compass to guide him.

Oliver understood where Felicity was coming from and the pain that she was feeling. The only thing he could do was keep steady to the course while she processed everything they learned.

Oliver gave out a heavy sigh before turning to where Diggle was glaring at Roy.

"What?" Roy asked with the old hot-head attitude tone to his voice. "She needed to hear that."

Diggle crossed his arms over his chest before tipping his head in challenge.

"Maybe she did." Diggle's form towered over Roy. "But maybe you could have been a bit gentler in your delivery."

"Well, you two weren't saying anything and it needed to be said," Roy stated. "And maybe I could have been … nicer." Roy lowered his head.

"Can we get back to the plan?" Oliver interceded. "We shouldn't be wasting time arguing with each other."

Diggle and Roy both nodded in agreement, putting their issues to the hypothetical back burner while they solved their most recent issue.

Roy moved past Diggle to the desk to pick up the tablet to show Oliver.

"While my hacking skills are nowhere near Felicity's, I was able to get into the city's archives for old blueprints and found the city plans for the area of town that the club is in. It's an older neighborhood that can have some shady dealings, so I looked for any old prints that may not be showing up on newer plans," Roy told Oliver as he pulled the plans up on the tablet.

Diggle picked up where Roy left off. "We were thinking that if we could get into the club and maybe put a bug on a main computer we could copy enough information that the FBI could use while also locating Vivienne and performing an extraction … " Diggle trailed off before exchanging a glance with Oliver and Roy. "Then we would hand both her and the copied files over to the FBI and be done with all of this."

"What about Vivienne's location?" Oliver asked as he brought a hand up to his chin in thought. "They won't keep her in the casino, unless they are stupid."

"After a fifteen year operation I doubt that they're stupid enough to keep her in the same spot as the casino knowing that she had been talking to other people," Diggle said as he gestured to Oliver's purple eye.

"We'll use his computer files to locate Vivienne … hopefully Felicity can decrypt whatever firewall-security software this guy has," Roy mused as he sat back down on the bed nearest the bathroom wall. "Her tablet is good but it doesn't have near as many updates as the computer system in the lair."

"It'll have to work." Oliver tightened his muscles as he glanced to the bathroom door. It would work because he was not going to let Felicity down.

**AN: I hope you all liked this past chapter. I'm starting to get back into the swing of writing regularly and I'd love to hear what you all thi**nk!


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Hey all! Thank you so much for sticking around the past few chapter and continuing to give your feedback, follows, and favs. You all are so awesome and always help me continue to keep going when I get discouraged. Also, a huge thank you to my wonderful beta, James Ramsey, who has continuously been super supportive. **

**I hope you all enjoy and I'd love to hear what you all think!**

**Chapter 10**

Felicity knew that Roy was right. Her mother was playing her and Felicity was letting her. From the minute she heard her mother's voice on the other end of the phone she knew this trip wouldn't be easy. Felicity had wanted to say 'no' when her mother called her earlier that day—with the pain of five years of radio silence, eighteen years of criticism and sleepless nights sitting firm in the back of her mind—but Felicity said 'yes.'

She felt as though she was back in their kitchen the day she left for MIT with her mother denying her the one thing she wanted – a relationship that mothers and daughters were supposed to have.

She had wanted her mother to go with her to Cambridge and help her get settled into her dorm room. Her mother would have gushed over the size of the room and the view Felicity had of the courtyard and made a not so appropriate comment in front of her ultra conservative roommate and her parents about who she had to sleep with to get Felicity a room like this.

Felicity would have turned red at her mother's comment but would have shared a secret smile with her when Vivienne would wink in her direction, then laugh about it with her mother when she took Felicity out for a farewell dinner that night – skipping her first orientation session in the process.

But more than Felicity wanted that scenario (or one like it) to happen, she wanted her mother to _want_ that.

In a way, Felicity felt like she had spent most of her life wanting her mother to see her and pay attention to her. Felicity wanted her mother to respect her and love her for the parts of her that made her who she was.

Her mother never really understood her aspirations to do more than stay in Vegas and take a job at one of the casinos. To Vivienne, her desire to leave her home and move across the country to study technology had been ludicrous and a waste of time. Felicity had to listen to her mother telling her not to waste her time going to college as she was going to end up back with Vivienne soon enough.

Over time she had grown to accept herself and love herself. After her 'bad boy' phase in college – her roommate's words – Felicity began putting herself first and doing things in her life because _she_ wanted too. She stayed in on Friday nights to order pizza and research new technology, she went to the occasional bar with some people from class and listened to them talk about TV shows that she should watch. Her biggest decision was taking the job at Queen Consolidated when she had offers from Wayne Enterprises, S.T.A.R. Labs, and Luther Corp (to name a few) all because it was what she wanted.

She became more self-sufficient and confident. She was satisfied with her life as it was – and then Oliver Queen entered it with a laptop full of bullet holes and a lie as thin the walls of her first apartment. Felicity adapted and began to feel like she could do more, and be happy doing more, with her life. She felt a greater sense of purpose when she worked with Oliver and Diggle, and found herself shaping her life around them and the 'mission.'

Over time Felicity began to feel something she had not felt in previous years or places. It was a sense of belonging and acceptance that made her smile when she thought of the lair, or of Oliver and Diggle. It was a sense of home and of family. She had people in her life who were proud of the work she could do and valued her. What she did with her life, with the team, mattered. Felicity had helped to save innocent lives from people like the Dollmaker or the Clock King, and that meant something to her.

She grew, and kept growing with each new day. This growth brought her farther and farther away from the eighteen year old girl who stood across from her mother just wanting her to notice her and love her for who she was.

"Felicity?" She heard a gentle rap on the bathroom door matched with John's hushed tone. "How are you doing in there?"

Felicity looked up from her spot on the edge of the bathtub where she had been sitting with her head between her knees and both hands cupping the back of her neck. She wasn't crying.

No. what she was feeling was more anger than sadness.

She was angry that Roy, the boy she loved fiercely and felt extremely protective of, wasn't willing to stand by her.

She and Roy had only had a handful of arguments since they began their friendship, all relating to which comms she gave him on that evening's mission or him stealing all of her favorite cereal, and her personal favorite—the time he crashed their newly set up computer system. It was safe to say that their arguments usually revolved around superficial issues.

This situation, that they were in right now, was not superficial. The past eight hours were the most excruciating that she had endured in years – her mother calling her out of the blue for 'help' but not caring for Felicity's presence. Oliver, Diggle, and Roy were getting a glimpse into her past—a past she worked extremely hard to keep hidden. And let's not forget having the job of helping her mother while none of her partners wanted to support Vivienne and in extension, Felicity too.

Felicity just wanted their support and to not be told that she was foolish for helping her own mom out of trouble. She was having a hard time helping as it was – Felicity saw the flaws in Vivienne's story and getting shot at twice in one day didn't help either – but Vivienne _was_ her mother. That meant something no matter how tumultuous their relationship was.

None of it seemed remotely fair and Roy didn't get that. Sure, he had supported Thea when her mother had been responsible for mass homicide, but he couldn't stand by Felicity?

Looking around the bathroom Felicity noticed that Roy had left his toothbrush and their toothpaste from home on the counter top. He must have tried to freshen up after she and Oliver went to her mother's house.

Just two days ago it had been Roy's turn to do the grocery shopping and at the top of their list was toothpaste. Felicity wouldn't say that she was picky when it came to her hygiene products, but she had her favorite items that she trusted. Her toothpaste was one of those trusted items, it was mint with a blue stripe going through the center and had helped her stay cavity free for six years now. Roy knew this before he left the apartment to go to the store while she went in to work on the computer systems at the lair.

Roy thought it was amusing that she was as insistent about a brand of toothpaste, saying "Aren't they all the same?" He continued to poke fun at the items on the list and asked if he should be taking notes on what brands were the 'right ones' before Felicity cocked her eyebrow in challenge. She knew he was just trying to be a pain in the ass to get out of having to go to the store, so Felicity just smiled and nodded at his jokes.

When Roy came home, proud of his purchases – he bought fruit and vegetables which weren't on the list – Felicity had forgotten all about her reservations with him picking up the essential items. It was rare that Roy looked happy about anything non-crime fighting related and Felicity wanted to support that feeling. Roy wasn't like her and was not giddy with excitement when they went to work every day. Being her assistant did not fill him with a sense of accomplishment and she knew this.

To see him proud of something that didn't consist of fighting super soldiers or patrolling the streets of Starling City made her happy. She knew that Roy hadn't come from a home with rainbows and unicorns painted on the walls, so while this was a small accomplishment, it was something. Felicity had felt the same way when she bought her first cell phone that didn't have her mother's name attached to the bill as her legal guardian. As soon as she finished purchasing her new phone at the local mall in Cambridge she immediately called Mrs. Baruch, her surrogate family from Las Vegas, to tell her the good news. It was Felicity's first step at real independence and separating herself from her mother.

These grocery trips were Roy's way of separating himself from the person he had been.

She helped him unpack their reusable shopping bags and even offered to cook dinner – which consisted of her ordering from the Thai restaurant down the block.

It wasn't until the next morning that she found a pink and red bottle with a skate boarding strawberry staring up at her with a wide, sparkling smile. The bottle read '2-in-1 Toothpaste and Mouthwash' with a flavor of Strawberry. Felicity stared at it in confusion for thirty seconds, muttering how Roy had one job and he got the wrong toothpaste, before she heard him snickering in the hallway.

Roy thought it would be funny to buy the wrong toothpaste, while still buying her brand, so he could see her reaction. He must have grabbed the wrong bottle when they were throwing their items in their bags this morning.

Giving the bottle a broken smile, Felicity bent down to splash her face with some water. She couldn't hide in the bathroom all night, nor did she want to. This wasn't exactly a side of herself she was loving.

When she came out from the bathroom Diggle sat at the desk with his smart phone in his hand. He looked like he was texting and she could tell that he was trying not to look up while he waited for her to emerge from her hiding place.

"Where are Oliver and Roy?" Felicity asked as she moved to the bed nearest the bathroom, curling her legs beneath her while she sat opposite Diggle.

Diggle took a beat before looking up from his phone. "They went to pick up some general supplies that we'll need – burner phones, Bluetooth headsets, weapons – that sort of thing." His voice was warm as he spoke.

"Supplies?" Felicity asked as she tried not to perk up from her spot. "We're staying?"

Diggle shook his head as he turned to glance at the floral wallpaper.

"We're waiting on you for the decision, but Oliver thought having a plan would be good in case you wanted to stay."

"I do … want to stay, I mean," Felicity sputtered. "I just didn't think you guys would want to stick around after everything, you know, that you found out."

"Felicity." Diggle swallowed. "We don't like seeing you hurt, and everything that we've seen since we got here, is you getting hurt."

"I know," Felicity murmured.

"No you don't know," Diggle told her in a firm, but not hostile tone. "I haven't seen you act like this …" Diggle paused to think. "Well, ever … not even when we faced off with the Clock King have you been this unsure of yourself."

"I don't know, I was a low on the confidence meter that time." Felicity tried to joke, but saw the firm set of Diggle's jaw and the unwavering gaze he was directing at her that told her she was not fooling anyone – least of all him. "I know that I'm not acting like the Felicity you guys know, I know that I'm not myself."

Diggle sat a little straighter at her words. She knew all of this. Felicity Smoak did not cater to those that hurt her. When she was kicked or pushed down, she wiped off her hands and got back up. Sure, she wasn't physically strong like her friends, but she could hold her own.

When she first found out about Oliver, she had called him out – a man who ran around Starling City shooting arrows into people on a nightly basis – on his behavior and she hadn't even known him. She stood toe to toe with Moira Queen and ran Isabel Rochev over with a car. It was safe to say that Felicity knew how to stand up for herself even if she did it somewhat awkwardly at times.

"If I saw myself right now I would say the same thing Roy did … but maybe in a slightly empathetic tone." Felicity shrugged when she caught Diggle's eye. "I just … I just don't know how to be me when I'm with my mom."

"You're transported back in time," Diggle supplied.

"Exactly." Felicity nodded her affirmation. "Even when you guys are with me, I just become this other person who I have no control over."

Felicity waited for him to comment as she kept her eyes fixed on the blanket. There was a pull in the fabric that her fingers drifted to. In a dramatic, over the top kind of way, she felt like this loose thread of fabric was symbolic to her current situation.

The small thread was trying to escape the world it came from, and had done a pretty good job so far, but no matter what it did the blanket would not let go. The pull of fabric, the loose thread, would always belong with the blanket, just like she would always belong to her mother and to the desert.

"You're not saying anything," Felicity mused as she shifted her gaze to meet John's inquisitive examination.

He seemed to sit a little straighter before leaning his forearms onto his knees. "I think that you need to ask yourself why you think you're not acting like 'Felicity Code-breaker Smoak' and why 'Felicity Meghan Smoak' is really so bad."

Felicity gave a halfhearted laugh as she looked away. "Well that's an easy one; Felicity Meghan Smoak is an insecure, self-loathing, computer geek with no friends, no life, and no future other than to be a cocktail waitress like her mother."

Felicity watched John's gaze shift as she said that last part – _like her mother_. "But you do have a future … You're living it right now," Diggle told her. "You still have your insecurities, you still are a computer geek, and while our life is fairly chaotic, I would say that you do have one. You have a future, you have friends, and I would hazard to say that you don't hate yourself."

While he ended on a questioning note Felicity understood where he was headed. She wasn't going to end up like her mother – she wasn't going to end up alone.

"Maybe you're trying so hard to make her life right, and fix her mess, because you don't want to become her," John noted as his gaze never wavered. "You are the smartest person that I know and you have come such a long way from the girl you used to be. You don't have to feel obligated to repent for your mother's sins." He paused before adding, "If that _is_ what you are doing."

Her entire teenage life had revolved around cleaning up after her mother or being the sun for her mother – something that Vivienne could use to anchor her to the real world. When Felicity went to MIT she left her mother to clean her own messes, and while leaving was the best thing that Felicity ever did she still felt guilt for how she left.

Vivienne wasn't blameless either, not by any means, but Felicity had been pushing her feelings for her mother aside for the past five years. They were all coming to a head now and forcing Felicity to face the fact that no matter what her mother did, Felicity was not her keeper.

"Do you think she tricked me?" Her voice sounded small to her own ears so she could only imagine what Diggle heard. "Do you think my mother lied about how much trouble she was in to con me? I mean she hadn't directly asked me for money, but that fifty thousand dollars has been a big part of this."

John cupped his hands over his mouth in thought. He hadn't had the good fortune to meet Mrs. Smoak and felt that he couldn't make an objective observation, but he saw Felicity sitting there and could still hear Roy's voice in his ears. He knew something was off about the situation and he hoped that Vivienne wouldn't knowingly put Felicity in danger.

"I think ..." John paused as Felicity's tablet beeped from the spot on the desk.

Felicity moved to pick up the tablet which lay next to John, more so out of habit than a need to see what alert had just come through..

There on the screen was an email from an unknown IP address.

"What is it?" Diggle asked as he twisted in his chair to take a look at the screen.

Felicity stood stock still beside him with her fingers pinched over her lips. Diggle stood from his seat to get a better look at the tablet and what had caused this reaction.

The email had no subject line but the message read in all caps "YOU HAVE UNTIL MIDNIGHT, $50,000, LEAVE QUEEN AT HOME."

There was also a picture to accompany the words – Vivienne Smoak, tied to a chair with a busted lip, a bloody nose, and a swollen eye.

* * *

The sheer, gossamer curtains did little to hide the interior of Felicity's apartment from possible prying eyes. Oliver noted it the first time that he had visited the apartment – the day after Tommy died – when he finally delivered on his promise of a bottle of red wine.

To him the formality of wines – the year, the vintage, and the body – had all lost their meaning as they were mainly used as currency in a world where he felt he didn't belong anymore. At one time in his life the title of a bottle of wine, or scotch or whiskey, and his access to it would have made him a king among those who surrounded him, and he would have basked in that feeling of superiority. He had been the would-be king of Starling City.

Now he was just the Arrow, and sometimes Oliver Queen. The safety of those he loved and those who lived in his city were what mattered most to him. Everything else in his world was now for show – the money, the parties, the business – none of it mattered as much as they once had.

Giving Felicity that bottle of wine hadn't been about repayment or a way to make him superior. He was returning on a promise he had made instead of buying her respect. He remembered the way her eyes lit up when she realized what that specific bottle had meant, a return on a long forgotten promise for helping win a 'scavenger hunt' for an armored car. They had had a good laugh, and he watched as she actually enjoyed and savored the thing that had become used as trade in his old world.

She had confided in him that night that often times she would curl up on her beige sofa with a book in one hand and a glass of red wine in the other. He had imagined that her hair would have long ago been taken down from where it had been fixed atop her head and her work attire would have been traded in for cartoon food pajama bottoms and a matching t-shirt. Felicity would often read, or watch TV, until her head fell to the sofa back as the day had finally caught up to her.

Those same curtains, from the first night that he had visited, still hung in her window, leaving her living area exposed to anyone within view, especially from his perch on the building across the street from hers.

It had started the night after they returned from Hong Kong after dropping off Slade on Lian Yu. They had gone straight to the lair to find it, and Roy, crumbling around the edges. The tale of the city's destruction was written on the walls – and the floor, ceiling, and on all of their damaged equipment. The four worked through the next day until they finally couldn't stand on their own anymore with the weight of the past forty eight hours taking all of their energy.

Felicity had gone home first, at Oliver and Diggle's insistence. Diggle left soon after Felicity when he received a call from Lyla. Roy had wanted to stay a little longer to keep working, which Oliver knew was the young man's way of coping with all that had transpired.

Out of all of them, Roy had suffered the most, in Oliver's mind at least. He once was the strongest of them all with Mirakuru running through his veins, being able to incapacitate an enemy in minutes while healing at a rapid pace had been a high point for the young hero. Roy had awoken to a new reality where he was powerless to stop anyone from doing anything. Oliver had made a mental note that night to make sure that they didn't lose Roy again. He was part of the team, and they always looked out for each other.

After Oliver mounted his bike and turned the ignition key, he realized that he didn't have anywhere to go. Queen mansion held too many terrible memories, most recently him leaving Felicity to Slade's capture. The lair was compromised to say the least, and he was pretty sure that Roy would be staying there. He knew that Diggle would be … reconnecting with Lyla while celebrating their good news and the last thing he wanted was to interrupt their evening.

Oliver figured that he would just drive by to see if Felicity's lights were still on. She too had been through a lot these past couple days and she needed her rest. It was easy for him and Diggle to forget that Felicity had been injured in a car accident when she had been up and walking around and making her usual, brilliant remarks that were all Felicity. However, each time Oliver glanced in her direction he had seen the head injury that had caked her hairline with blood, or the blossoming shade of purple beneath her eyes.

He had held her while she lay motionless in his arms and knew that feeling was one he never wanted to relive. The cold chill that had settled in his stomach as he carried her to safety, and then watched as Slade held a sword to Felicity's throat, rose its head when he reached her front perch to find a single light on in her living room. _She should be asleep and safe in bed with all the lights off_, Oliver thought to himself as he climbed the front steps.

As he began to reach for the doorbell he caught the movement of those sheer curtains in the light breeze (she also left her window open which did nothing to quell his nerves) out of the corner of his eye. That movement drew his glance to the living room window.

There she was, glass of wine on the end table while she slept curled into the corner of the couch. He wondered how long it had taken her to fall asleep once she sat down. Had she been able to make up her mind on TV or a book, or had the combination of the quiet apartment and soft couch lulled her into a sleepy submission?

While he left her apartment that night and wandered the city till day break, he found himself stopping at her place almost nightly after that. Once she would leave the lair for the night he would continue his patrols and eventually find himself on a rooftop nearby. He made sure that she was ok, sometimes only standing there long enough to be sure that she was safe, before he would continue to monitor the city.

Once Roy moved in, his rooftop visits had become less frequent. As long as Roy was there Oliver had felt better – granted not as good as he would have felt if he, himself, had been inside, but Roy was good too.

* * *

"You know if you keep looking at that phone it's never going to ring," Oliver mused as he noted Roy look down at his cell phone for the fifth time in the last six minutes. It had been a mutual decision between Oliver and Diggle to get Roy out of the hotel room to cool off while also letting Felicity have time to herself as well. "Give her some time and you can talk to her when we get back to the room."

Roy glanced over at Oliver before letting out a heavy sigh and dropping his head to the passenger seat. He felt for the kid, he did, but Roy had a short temper that combined with Felicity's loud voice and current situation, didn't mix well.

Roy was stubborn and a know it all, and very protective of Felicity. Oliver understood where Roy's thought process was – he didn't trust Vivienne much either – but this whole day had been about Felicity, not her mother. As long as Felicity wanted to be here he would stay with her and try to support her best he could.

"So what's on that list of ours?" Roy asked while looking over at Oliver. "I doubt we are going to find an X2 Processor, or whatever type of computer Felicity is dreaming about this week, on that list that Diggle wrote up."

Oliver snorted from his seat. No, this mission was about using old school methods, burner phones, and weapons with the numbers scratched off. It was hardly their average run of the mill crime fighting.

"Here." Oliver handed the list over to Roy who began to look it over.

"So, we are getting guns," Roy mused aloud with an edge of accusation in his tone.

"Roy," Oliver warned, but didn't have the same fight in his voice that he had when Felicity had been in the room. "Don't."

Roy huffed before turning in his seat, only to turn back to face Oliver. "You know I'm right," Roy asserted. "You saw her, you saw the way she treats Felicity, and her new 'I've seen the light' attitude came at the perfect time for you to get enough information to lead us into a trap before she conveniently gets kidnapped? Come on, you know that something is up with this woman."

Oliver took a minute to process Roy's comments. He knew something was off with Vivienne, he just didn't know the full extent. She had pushed Felicity away only to pull her back in moments before a man rushed Felicity in Vivienne's bedroom and another man shot at them. The situation seemed worrisome at best but he couldn't place a reason to go these lengths to trap Felicity. Even so, the questions continued to rise to the surface in his mind.

If Vivienne had been kidnapped then why hadn't they been contacted yet? If this Johnnie guy was so connected and powerful then he would have put two and two together and come up with Felicity who worked for Oliver Queen who, contrary to popular belief, still had a silent trust fund buried in a Swiss bank account. Oliver could come up with a hefty number to free Vivienne if need be, but only a handful of people actually knew of the money's location – including his favorite computer genius.

"I agree that something isn't right." Oliver paused before glancing over to Roy. "But I don't know what that is, and attacking Felicity isn't exactly going to help us figure that out."

Oliver caught Roy's incredulous glance out of the corner of his eye before rolling his own. "What?" Oliver deadpanned.

"You do realize that what you just said is a load of bullshit, right?" Roy asked with an almost laugh on his lips. "The two of you talk to each other like that regularly – ok, not talk, more like yell."

"We do not –"

Roy cut Oliver off from finishing his objection. "Oh please, you two are like a married couple who take pleasure in pushing the others' buttons. It's kind of disgusting if you ask me, considering Felicity is sort of like a sister to me," Roy prompted.

"We do not tell each other that they are being stupid," Oliver finished confidently.

Roy just raised one eyebrow in response. "I didn't say that she was stupid."

Sure, Oliver and Felicity argued, but the situations Roy was referring to were different from the one that they were currently in.

"My point being," Oliver continued. "That no matter what we think right now, finding out your parent isn't who you thought they were can be stressful enough. We need to support Felicity, not beat her down."

"Ok … But there is a difference between supporting Felicity and letting her hide her head in the sand," Roy murmured. "She was already shot at twice and attacked once on two separate occasions. What happens if one of use isn't there to help her next time?"


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: Hey Everyone! I want to thank everyone for reading, leaving reviews, favoriting and following the story. You're all so awesome and I really appreciate the support. I wanted to write a little more insight into Vivienne's life seeing as how I have been giving you all a lot of questions but not a lot of answer when it comes to her. So every other section here will be Vivienne's story with our group in between. **

**To answer a question I got on the last chapter: Johnnie knows who Oliver is because Oliver is a public figure who used to spend time (I assume) in Vegas. You'll also read a little more at the end of the story of why Johnnie knows Oliver. **

**Unfortunately, I've noticed the interest in this story has been steadily decreasing over the past few chapters. I've been going through a few negative life transitions these past few months and I feel as though it has reflected in recent chapters. I won't abandon this story or hold it hostage for more reviews and views, however I can't promise an update will be happening again for a little while at least. I want to finish the story before I post again so that those of you that are still reading and enjoying will be able to finish. I have the outline all formed out and I know where the story is going but now it is just about finding time to sit and write it all down.**

Chapter warnings: Mentions of drug use and mild violence

**_Previously in Chapter 10:_**

_"What is it?" Diggle asked as he twisted in his chair to take a look at the screen._

_Felicity stood stock still beside him with her fingers pinched over her lips. Diggle stood from his seat to get a better look at the tablet and what had caused this reaction. The email had no subject line but the message read in all caps "YOU HAVE UNTIL MIDNIGHT, $50,000, LEAVE QUEEN AT HOME."_

_There was also a picture to accompany the words – Vivienne Smoak, tied to a chair with a busted lip, a bloody nose, and a swollen eye. _

**Chapter 11**

_Five Years Ago_

_The postcard sat on the dressing room vanity awkwardly out of place in Vivienne's opinion. In all the places she would picture this particular postcard, it would not be in the back dressing room at Johnnie's casino._

_The room itself was dark and depressing with a slight mildew and cigarette smoke smell around the edges. The air had become filled with an aerosol spray haze, the heavy industrial kind that could transform a person's hair into a masterpiece that would last well after day break. There were sequins and old abandoned rhinestones that lay haphazardly on the ground and on the linoleum vanity counter tops._

_This room was the underbelly of an underbelly, Vivienne often thought, the things that the customers couldn't see without the fear of breaking the glamorous illusion that they believed. Johnnie was always very adamant that they take their breaks in the back room – _never outside, never in the hallways_ – always hidden away so the customers couldn't see who the girls really were._

_Vivienne had worked for Johnnie for longer than she cared to remember and longer than any of the current girls he had working the floors. About six years earlier, Johnnie found Vivienne crying in some back alley after she had been fired, _yet again_, and he took pity on her and hired her. The money was good and Johnnie treated her better than most casino owners treated their employees._

_There was one time when one of the girls needed to take the night off because her five-year old son had the chicken pox. Normally in their line of work that meant the girl wouldn't be back the next night, but to Johnnie this woman was family. He not only gave the girl the night off but made sure she had enough money for cab fare home and to pick up her son's prescription medication on the way._

_Johnnie never let the men get too handsy, and made sure that "his girls" were treated like ladies. Vivienne had watched him kick more than a dozen men out for even looking at one of them the wrong way. It was like having a protective older brother that always watched out for her._

_Over the years, as Felicity grew up and went away to college, Johnnie made sure that Vivienne was taken care of. When Felicity left her, Johnnie eased the pain and promised her his continued support. He encouraged her to take Felicity's phone calls and promised Vivienne that if the whole school thing didn't work out for her Felicity would always be taken care of._

_At the time, Vivienne thought it was kind and caring of him – her pseudo older brother – but as the years went on, and Johnnie still hadn't met Felicity, it became more disturbing. Vivienne couldn't place why it unnerved her so much that Johnnie took an interest in her daughter, but it did. He never made a lewd comment or held a tone that suggested his means were less than honorable, but every time Johnnie said Felicity's name it made Vivienne's skin crawl._

_When the postcard came Vivienne had been asleep after a long night at work. She hadn't been able to check her mail until she was on her way to work that night, and after scanning the various bills that had come for her, she saw it. A picture of a very blond Felicity with a standard background of what looked like a college campus accompanied by the words:_

_**Announcing the Graduation of**_

_**Felicity Meghan Smoak**_

_**Massachusetts Institute of Technology**_

_**Class of 2009**_

She looks so smart_, Vivienne found herself thinking as she stared down at the picture of her daughter. That's when it hit her that Felicity was never coming back. She had held onto hope for all those years and kept answering Felicity's phone calls because she kept thinking that maybe Felicity missed her and would come home. Looking down at the postcard in her hands, Vivienne knew that Felicity was gone for good._

_She kept glancing at the picture at each red light and stared at that postcard during her break, having kept it folded up in her wallet so that she didn't lose it. Her baby looked so mature with her new glasses, they were black rimmed and square frames, and her blonde hair. She didn't look like her little Felicity anymore._

_"Hey baby." The sound of Johnnie's voice entering the back room caused a flurry of unwarranted panic to rise up in her stomach. With a quick flick of her wrist, Vivienne tossed the post card into her purse that was laying open nearby. "Viv, my girl," Johnnie purred as he approached her from behind._

_"Hey Johnnie," Vivienne smiled up at him, the graduation announcement pushed aside in her mind for the moment._

_Johnnie gave her a soft smile and placed his large open palm on her shoulder, like a weight keeping her in her place. "Russell is outside, and he's asking for you again," he said with a wink and a gentle squeeze._

_Vivienne gave a nod before she looked up at herself in the mirror. Her hair had lost its natural volume and her skin was an uneven color from her lack of sun exposure. There were bags under her eyes from lack of sleep, or too much sleep. She wasn't sure anymore. Vivienne was pretty sure that her diet of pills, vodka, and pretzels didn't help either, but she was under a lot of pressure to keep the clients entertained or else she was sure that Johnnie would fire her once and for all. If it wasn't for Russell she would have been out on the street a long time ago._

_No matter how well Johnnie treated his girls, if they didn't turn a profit then they didn't last long._

_She wondered, not for the first time, what Felicity would think if she saw her again._

* * *

"Hey," Roy announced his and Oliver's entrance to Diggle before catching sight of Felicity working furiously on her tablet. "What's going on?" he asked slowly while Oliver followed him into the room with their bags of supplies in each hand.

Diggle stood to his feet while Felicity kept her eyes fixed on the tablet in front of her. "We have a situation," Diggle spoke softly as he shifted his eyes between his teammates. "Turns out Vivienne _was_ abducted by whoever it was that shot at you guys in the house."

Oliver let out a sigh of frustration while Roy turned his head to glance at Felicity. She still hadn't said anything and hadn't made a move when Diggle relayed the information. Roy wanted to reach out and put a hand on her shoulder like they would normally do back home, when they weren't fighting. But he wasn't sure if it would be too soon.

"What do we know?" Oliver asked as he dropped their supplies to the bed where Felicity sat.

While Oliver's question was directed to Diggle, Roy didn't miss the way that Oliver stepped closer to Felicity, putting himself within an arm's reach. He noticed that Oliver did that a lot – he would get closer to Felicity when things got dangerous.

"We just got an email, untraceable," Felicity began talking. "It was a picture of my mom, a demand for the $50,000 she owes, and we have to meet them by midnight."

Oliver looked down at Felicity before glancing at his watch. It was nearing on nine thirty now. While they hadn't always had a lot of time to form their plans when going on missions, they never cut it this close unless it was a last minute adjustment.

"Oh, and they know who you are," Diggle added and Felicity nodded. "They don't want Oliver Queen tagging along to the money drop, but at least they didn't make you as the Arrow."

Oliver sighed as he raked a hand over his face in frustration. Roy watched as Felicity turned to look up at him, her faithful protector. He could tell she wanted to say something to comfort Oliver, but Roy knew they were now being backed into a corner where their options were limited.

"Hey man, she still has me." Diggle nodded as he took a step closer. "I can be on the inside and watch to make sure that nothing happens."

"Diggle, what about Lyla?" Felicity told him earnestly. Diggle was about to become a father and a risk like this was too much for Felicity's comfort, they all knew that.

"Why can't I go into the sleazy underground casino?" Roy volunteered with a raised hand. "I mean if we're all volunteering."

Roy watched as Felicity reached out and poked his injured side, causing him to jump two steps away from Felicity and to take hold of the injury he only just received a few hours earlier.

"Ow, damn it, Felicity!" He exclaimed as she simply shrugged from her seat.

"Guess _you_ won't be escorting me." Oliver held back a grin while Diggle coughed to hide a small chuckle. "I can go in there myself, it's no big deal."

"Absolutely not." "Are you out of your mind?" Came the dual responses of Diggle and Roy, respectively, who both stood a little taller at her statement.

"I've gone into a mob casino before, how difficult can this one be?" Felicity responded as if this were some menial task that she did every day. "Besides, the email said to come alone and I'll have the three of you sitting outside waiting to pounce if anything goes wrong."

"It's too big of a risk," Oliver asserted from his spot. "Let's just come up with a better plan."

"Wait," Roy's voice halted them as he glanced over Felicity's shoulder at the email on the screen. "It doesn't say to come alone; it just says to leave Oliver at home."

Diggle exchanged a glance with Oliver before nodding his head in silent agreement. "Felicity, do you really think Lyla would be OK with me letting you go into this alone?" Diggle watched as Felicity tucked her chin down before giving him a half smile. "I'm going with you because that's what partners do."

* * *

_Three Years Ago_

_"Vivienne." Russell's voice broke through the haze in her mind. "Vivienne."_

_It was urgent, but she didn't care. It was Felicity's birthday and one of the girls at work gave her this powder that he swore she just had to try to lighten her mood. Apparently the high was amazing and coming down from it was very mellow. It was perfect for her after today. Johnnie got mad at her and screamed at her in front of the rest of the girls, and then told her to 'walk it off.' _Whatever that meant.

_She knew in the back of her mind that if she lost this job there was nothing else for her. All she was, was this – an aging cocktail waitress. There was hardly room for advancement._

_On top of Johnnie's outburst, it was Felicity's birthday and she was too stubborn to call her own daughter. Vivienne was pretty sure that Felicity wouldn't have even taken the call after Vivienne didn't show up to Felicity's college graduation and stopped returning her phone calls. She then started moving around a lot. It was more out of necessity than she actually wanted too. _

_When she was evicted from her last place, Russell had taken her in. He told her when she showed up on his doorstep one night with a cardboard box of her things that he had a spare bedroom that had never been used. It was a place for her to stay until she got back on her feet. If it wasn't for Johnnie's attitude lately she would have gone to him, but he was under a lot of pressure, or so he kept saying, and her lack of enthusiasm for her work made his job more difficult._

_In the past two months alone, Johnnie had called her into his office to complain about her using more of the product than selling it. Tonight's "discussion" had been in front of the rest of the girls which had made it worse. She already heard their whispers and their gossip about how she must have screwed someone pretty important to keep her job as long as she had. Vivienne Smoak was hardly employee of the month type of material._

_She sent a text message to Russell saying that she was heading home early and she would see him later. He arrived back at the house not even a half hour after she arrived to find her passed out on the bathroom floor with a small plastic bag clutched tightly in her right hand. The drug was a white powder, an altered version of crack cocaine she had heard once, that Johnnie had just smuggled into Vegas from Mexico. Apparently Johnnie's son had done some international business and supplying his father with new contacts._

_Russell had promised to make her life better. He had given her a place to live, food to eat, and someone to care for her when she had been at her lowest – but none of that changed the fact that her life wasn't what she wanted it to be. In a weird way he reminded her of Felicity – he was always taking care of her when she was low, and he continued to support her no matter how crazy she seemed. Felicity had always been that person for her. She had always provided Vivienne with a light that she thought she had lost a long time ago._

_Then Felicity left, and the world became dark again. Nothing Russell did could change that._

_The powder in her hand would help her feel the light again. It would help her be closer to the warmth and the happiness that Felicity used to bring her. She loved her daughter and hated her at the same time. Felicity left Vivienne alone, like her husband had done. Everyone always left Vivienne._

_As she drifted off to ride the euphoric feeling this new substance provided she remembered a little dirty-blonde baby girl crying in her crib for her mommy, and Vivienne feeling more purpose in her life in that moment than in all the drinks she served or new drugs she tried._

_As Russell shook her shoulder one more time in attempt to wake her up, his voice becoming more urgent, she knew she had taken too much. Vivienne began humming happy birthday to her baby girl and prayed that when she woke up, it would be Felicity's face that she saw._

* * *

"Let's run through the plan again," Dig sat on the bed with Roy while Oliver leaned against the TV console, eyes on Felicity.

She had just emerged from the bathroom after trying on three of her mother's dresses that Felicity assumed were for work. She was amazed that they even fit considering how much weight her mother had lost since she last saw her.

In middle school Felicity used to see her mother going to work at night and on occasion wondered what it must have felt like to wear one of those dresses. Her mother had always looked beautiful and had this amazing aura that just commanded attention. Granted they argued constantly, especially as Felicity grew older and realized that her mother's job wasn't all that glamorous., but she knew for certain that her mother was one of those people that others wanted to be around. At least that's what she always imagined her mother to be.

These dresses were different though. She couldn't just wear her street clothes into this casino, particularly not knowing who the clientele was. Oliver drove Felicity to her mother's house once more, and stood only five feet away from her at any given time while she rifled through her mother's very disorganized closet. The three dresses that she brought back to the hotel had cut outs in strategic areas with lace overlay to show a sense of modesty or were short enough that little was left to the imagination.

The dress Felicity ended up choosing, based on fit and that she felt like she was somewhat covered, was a maroon dress that stopped just above her knee. The bodice was a soft, pleated fabric that must have had a bit of elastic to it as it clung to Felicity's chest and abdomen giving her a fair amount of cleavage. It was her modest choice considering her other two options.

While Felicity had her own share of dresses with cut outs or figure forming fabrics, these outfits just didn't feel right. Maybe it was because they were her mother's dresses, or maybe it was because she was about to go into a place where her mother was being held captive by some sort of drug lord with only Diggle as immediate protection.

Either way Felicity did know that she couldn't wait until this night was over, and her mother was safely away from Johnnie.

"Roy will stay in the car with Felicity's tablet and monitor the security cameras once we set up our link into their systems. Roy you're also going to work on trying to get any documents about the operation and information on Vivienne's whereabouts." Roy nodded his agreement. "Oliver will be in place on the fire escape of the building across the alley and I will go in with Felicity for added backup." John stopped himself when he noticed Oliver's face tighten where he stood. "You ok?"

"Yeah." Oliver gave a tight-lipped nod which they all knew to mean that he was not ok with the plan.

"Diggle will keep me safe." Felicity addressed the nerves they were all feeling. "Besides if we have to make a quick exit it's better to have you on the outside waiting for us. They won't expect us to have back up."

Oliver sighed before pushing off the console to walk to where Felicity stood. He positioned himself near her but didn't move to touch her as he kept his arms at his sides.

"I don't like this," he said as he began to rub his fingers together as if he were itching to put an arrow into anything, or anyone. "There are too many things that could go wrong. This is obviously a trap since they must know that we wouldn't have had time enough to pull that kind of money together."

"So we follow the plan," Diggle interrupted calmly. "They'll move for their weapons, and I'll move for mine which will cause a fight to start. Felicity will get grabbed so they have more leverage," Diggle paused.

Felicity began speaking at Diggle's pause. "According to the city plans that we hacked, there is only one other possible exit near that location – which is where you and Roy will be waiting." Felicity nodded in his direction. "We've had worse plans."

Oliver shook his head at their attempts at assurance. Felicity knew that Oliver seemed to have some kind of need to always keep her safe in the lair. Probably because she didn't have the same kind of training as he and Dig, and now Roy, but she wasn't stupid either. Felicity had picked up on what they had been doing while she was waiting for the systems to reboot and when they had their brief lessons on slow nights. Felicity wasn't as badass as them but she was getting to the point where she felt more confident in her abilities to take care of herself. She was also a lot smarter than them.

"It could be worse." Roy gained their attention. "You could be the one having to sit in the car."

"Hey," Felicity said grabbing Roy's attention. "As someone who usually sits in the car, it's harder than it looks."

Roy gave her a half smile before turning to glance between Diggle and Oliver. "Well I guess we better get moving."

Felicity sighed as she looked down at her dress – her mother's dress – one last time before nodding. It was time to go get her mother back.

* * *

_Twenty One Hours Earlier_

_The gunshot was louder than she expected. Granted she had never heard a gun go off except on television but she always expected it to happen and then be over. The ringing in her ears, however, kept going like one of those annoying kitchen clocks that her mother used to have that would chime that same annoying tune on the hour. She hated that clock._

_"Look at what you made me do, Vivienne," Johnnie called out in anger. "Look at the mess you just made."_

_Johnnie pointed his 35 caliber pistol to the ground where Russell lay, unmoving. He was face down in the asphalt outside of the casino with a red pool of blood seeping out from beneath him. Just a minute ago he had been fighting with Johnnie about something – she didn't know what – and next he was on the ground and her ears were ringing._

_"You know, I never would have shot him if you two just stuck with my arrangement," Johnnie said with a shake of his head._

_"You shot him," Vivienne mumbled as she kept her eyes on Russell's still form. "You really shot him."_

_Johnnie let out a chuckle as he handed off his gun to the man standing to his right, the man who was seemingly unfazed at what had just occurred. Vivienne kept shaking her head as she stared down at her friend, her partner. Russell was dead._

_Her Russell, the man who took her in when she was at her lowest, brought her to her highest, and then tried to help her recover. Russell found her three years ago after she overdosed on a new drug she brought home. She had combined it with Adderall that she had saved for a rainy day and Felicity's birthday seemed like a good enough occasion._

_When Russell found her passed out on the bathroom floor she had been close enough to death to call for a trip to the ER before he took her to a rehab center ten miles outside the city limits only for her to check herself back out and return to Johnnie's waiting arms. Johnnie then took over as her protector, buying her a house and stocking it with essentials like food, alcohol, dresses, and drugs._

_After that night Russell had changed. He didn't come visit her at work and he would vanish for days at a time and then just pop up and ask her to lunch out of nowhere. He never talked to her about his old life anymore, but kept asking her when she was going to turn hers around. He never asked her to move back in again, and she sometimes would see him when she met him for lunch, talking to a strange man that she had never seen before. _

_But the strangest thing that had changed about Russell was how much time he was spending with Johnnie. The only times that Russell would come to the casino was to see Johnnie. The two would sit and laugh in Johnnie's office while smoking really expensive Cuban cigars. Vivienne thought it was a little strange because Johnnie never really liked Russell, and used to blame him for taking her away._

_Then one night Johnnie snapped. He pulled Vivienne into the back room and demanded that she tell him where his product was, he knew she was a junkie and that she took it. Russell stood beside him, with a blank stare on his face, as Johnnie slapped Vivienne across her face and told her that she was a "junkie whore whose own daughter didn't even love her."_

_While Vivienne felt her hackles rise at the mention of Felicity, she held back as she caught Russell's glance. His eyes begged her to stay quiet as Johnnie continued to rail into her for stealing from him and how she now had a debt to pay. Then Johnnie stopped and bent down to her level. With tears in his eyes he apologized and wiped away the stray tears from her eyes while kissing her forehead. _

_Johnnie promised never to hurt Vivienne again as long as she repaid her debt. Vivienne never did find out why Russell's eyes told her to stay quiet, or why Johnnie suddenly came after her for stealing product when she hadn't touched any of his drugs in months. She stayed with the ecstasy that kid from the university kept slipping her under the table that he bought with daddy's money._

_Then her trips to Mexico started and she did start using again. Anything to dull the pain, she told herself as she swallowed some pill that one of the girls gave her, or brought home some crack that Johnnie was gracious enough to part with._

_She thought things were getting better. Johnnie seemed happier and Russell stopped looking at her. The trips to Mexico became less frequent and she found herself breathing at night with only the alcohol to numb the pain._

_But now Russell was face down on the ground with a hole in his chest while Vivienne desperately wished for something to make this all go away._

_"Now, Vivienne," Johnnie cooed as he bent down to her level. "Sweetheart, I'm going to need your help now that you made me shoot Russell."_

_His voice didn't match his words, she thought, his tone was so calm and sweet while his words dripped acid. She didn't understand. She only just came outside when Johnnie began to punch Russell. She hadn't even heard their conversation before hand. _

_"Why?" Vivienne swallowed over the lump in her throat. "What do you need from me?"_

_Her eyes stayed on Russell, willing him to just stand up. If he stood up he could tell her what to do, he could fix this._

_Johnnie smiled at her as he pushed a strand of hair behind her ear before grabbing the base of her neck in a fist._

_"You are going to listen and you are going to listen good or a lot more people are going to get hurt," he promised with his face centimeters from hers. She could smell the tobacco on his breath. "My son needs to open up a trade port into a nearby city so that we can move a new product into the area."_

_Vivienne couldn't help but frown in confusion. What did any of this have to do with her?_

_"He found the perfect port, and the perfect workers who would look the other way for a reasonable fee, but now it seems he's encountered some trouble in the form of Robin Hood," Johnnie spit out as he drew only closer to Vivienne's face, pulling her hair so that her neck arched up. "Seems some son of a bitch with a bow and arrow has been blocking all trade in and out of Starling City."_

_There it was, Starling City. Vivienne struggled to put the pieces together and why that city was so important in her mind. God, that last pill was a mistake, she thought as she tried to figure out why this should matter to her._

_"I don't understand," Vivienne choked out as Johnnie loosened his hold. "What does this have to do with me?"_

_Johnnie let go of Vivienne's neck and smiled wider than a crocodile. "Of course you don't know, sweet one. Your main task in life is to remain oblivious to anything that is not you."_

_The man beside Johnnie smirked at the last comment before sharing a quick laugh with Johnnie._

_"Seems you know someone who lives in Starling City, a certain little blonde computer genius in fact," Johnnie crowed._

_"No," Vivienne whispered as the pieces fell together._

_"Oh yes," Johnnie smiled wider. "Look at you using that brain of yours, finally, after all these years." He rolled his eyes before placing both of his hands on Vivienne's shoulders. "It seems through one of my sources that your little girl has gone and got herself a nice cushy job banging the head of Queen Consolidated and getting promoted faster than anyone her age, ever. This also entitles her to at least some of his super-secret trust fund I'm sure. At least that's why I've heard."_

_"Felicity," Vivienne whispered as she let her head fall to her chest._

_"Yes, indeed, your little Felicity is mommy's daughter after all," Johnnie said sardonically. "But oh wait, it gets better. Turns out my source also found a redacted police report, which that we could find it shows just how sloppy the SCPD really is with their records," he said with a wink. "This report goes on to state that your little bright sunshine of a daughter is working with the pain in my ass known as the Arrow."_

_"No," Vivienne urged. "Felicity doesn't do things like that, she's safe."_

_Johnnie gave out another little laugh before leaning closer to Vivienne's face, one hand reaching far enough up to grasp the back of her neck to keep her from moving._

_"What is truly amusing about that statement is how you act like you know your daughter at all," Johnnie smirked. "How you think that after five years of shutting her out you have any idea who your daughter has become."_

_Vivienne shook her head and tried to climb further back in her chair than she reasonably thought possibly. How did Johnnie know all this? Had he been keeping track of Felicity all these years?_

_"So, Vivienne Smoak, I am going to need you to call your daughter and ask her to get on the first plane to Vegas to bail you out of the most recent mess that is your life," Johnnie told her as he pulled her cell phone from her pocket. It was a pay as you go phone, the only thing she could really afford at the moment._

_"What if I say no?" Vivienne asked with more bravery than she felt. She may not have been the best mother, but like hell was she going to drag her daughter into this mess. "I don't even know how to get a hold of her."_

_Johnnie curled his lips in thought before turning and using what must have been all his weight to land a punch to Vivienne's cheek. The force of the hook knocked her over from her sitting position. Her face was not level with Russell's sad, vacant eyes._

_"If you don't call your pretty little daughter out to Vegas to save her failure of a mother, then I am going to have to go all the way to Starling City and drag her here myself." She knew he wasn't lying but she couldn't think her way out of this one. "Either way, she is going to get on a plane and she is going to use her 'technical' skills to call off the man with the bow and arrow and I am going to get my product into that port."_

_"How do you even know that she'll come?" Vivienne tried. "You said it yourself, we haven't talked in years. What makes you think she would come here to help me?"_

_All the smiles were gone now as Johnnie bent down so that he was even with her on the floor, only a few inches away from Russell's body._

_"I know that she will come because she is your daughter, and no matter how poorly you have treated her, she will come. She will come and she will help save her poor defenseless mommy from harm," Johnnie spoke in a low tone. "And, Viv, if she doesn't come I will go to get her and let's just say that your reunion will be a lot more bloody."_

**AN: Thank you all for reading. I'd love to hear what you think as constructive criticism is always welcome!**


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